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MARGARET FULLER 
AND GOETHE 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF A REMARKABLE PERSONAL- 
ITY. HER RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY, AND HER 
RELATION TO EMERSON, J. F. CLARKE 
AND TRANSCENDENTALISM 



BY 

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS BRAUN 

(A, M., Hari'ard: Ph. D., Univ. of III.) 
Instructor in German in The State University of Iowa 




NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1910 



?S^2. 



^ 

.3'' 



COPYIIGHT, 1910 
BY 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 



C CI.AL-7 87l)l 



PREFACE 



Just a century ago, In 1810, was bom one of 
America's most remarkable women, if not the 
most remarkable one, Margaret Fuller. This 
book therefore comes as a centenary tribute to 
her memory. 

Several writers and critics, among them 
Edward Everett Hale and T. W. Higginson, 
have tried to account for the very strange fact 
that Margaret Fuller is not better known gen- 
erally to the students and readers of American 
literature. That she deserves a much more hon- 
orable place in the history of the development of 
our thought and literature than the rather humble 
one which has thus far been assigned to her, has 
been felt by all who have studied her interesting 
career and become acquainted with her extraor- 
dinary intellect and activities. In fact, it is diffi- 
cult to understand the whole creative period of our 
literature without taking into account her signifi- 
cant role in the whole movement, andthepowerful 
influence she exerted upon our greatest American 



vi PREFACE 

thinkers and most noted literary men of that im- 
portant period. It is the hope of the short in- 
troductory chapter of the present work to bring 
to light, in a somewhat concise treatment, her true 
relation to some of these great men and to the 
period in which she lived and acted. 

The chief aim of the present work, neverthe- 
less, is to trace the inner development of the pow- 
erful personality of this interesting woman, and to 
search out the sources of her growth and the 
foundation for her religious convictions and her 
conceptions of life. What influence she exerted 
among her countrymen in disseminating the con- 
victions to which she held and how she interpreted 
and defended their author, Goethe, also deserves 
attention. Some space is therefore given to this 
phase of the subject. 

The author wishes to express his gratitude and 
indebtedness to Professor Julius Goebel, the head 
of the Department of German in the University 
of Illinois. It was upon his recommendation and 
with the help of his valuable suggestions that 
this work was undertaken and written. To Pro- 
fessor Stuart P. Sherman, of the Department of 
English in the University of Illinois, who read the 
present work in its original draft, and offered 



PREFACE vii 

many valuable criticisms, the writer desires to 
express his most hearty thanks. The writer also 
desires to thank Professor John A. Walz, Chair- 
man of the Department of Germanic Language 
and Literature at Harvard University, for. his 
kindly interest in the author during the years he 
spent at Harvard, and for the suggestions offered 
In the prosecution of this work. The writer 
furthermore owes his thanks to Dr. Frederick W. 
C. Lieder, Instructor in German in Harvard Uni- 
versity, for his friendly assistance in securing 
some of the books necessary for this study. Grat- 
itude is also expressed for the assistance given 
the writer by Miss Edith D. Fuller, the niece of 
Margaret Fuller; and also for the courtesies of 
the authorities of the Boston Public Library, 
Messrs. Whitney and Wheeler, especially, who 
permitted the writer to read the entire collection 
of the Margaret Fiiller manuscripts deposited In 
the Boston PubUc Library, and to make copious 
extracts from them. The writer is also Indebted 
to the various publishers vvho own the copyrights 
to works from which he has quoted. The refer- 
ences to these works are always given In the foot- 
notes. 

F. A. B. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER I 

CHAPTER I 

EARLY EDUCATION 19 

CHAPTER n 

STUDY OF GERMAN. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARGARET FULLER'S 

INNER LIFE 4^ 

CHAPTER HI 

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 7' 

CHAPTER IV 

DEFENSE OF GOETHE 14^ 

CHAPTER V 

INTERPRETATION, CRITICISM AND TRANSLATION OF GOETHE 174 

CONCLUSION 242 

MARGARET FULLER^S RELIGIOUS CREED. APPENDIX 247 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 259 

INDEX 263 



NOTE 

The titles of the following works referred to 
in the footnotes are abbreviated thus : 

Memoirs: Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, by 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Henry Channfng, and 
James Freeman Clarke. 

Margaret Fuller MSS.: Manuscript letters and papers 
of Margaret Fuller In the Boston Public Library. 

Expressions In parentheses are from the author quoted ; 
those in brackets are made by the writer. 



MARGARET FULLER AND 
GOETHE 

AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

n| One of the most Interesting and Influential char- 
acters in the history of Amerfcan literature Is Mar- 
garet Fuller. She was a leader in the great move- 
ment which during the fourth and fifth decades of 
the last century freed American Literature from 
a mere slavish Imitation of European — chiefly 
English — models, and established it on a firm basis 
In our own country. The company of young 
writers who Inaugurated this movement insisted 
that our poets and writers should take American 
themes and give them an original treatment, local 
coloring, and an American setting. Moreover, 
like Goethe and Schiller, Margaret Fuller as 
leader of this same group of thinkers, Insisted with 
them that poetry should have I'ts foundations deep 
In personal experience, In life Itself — that It should 
flow from the human heart, and not be a mere 
product of the Intellect.^ Finally, she did, in all 

^ Art, Literature and the Drama, p. 306. 

I 



2 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

probability, more than any other writer or critic to 
bring the Americans to a fair appreciation and es- 
timation of the rich literature of Germany, espe- 
cially that of Goethe, who, as Emerson has well 
said, is "the pivotal mind in modern literature, for 
all before him are ancients, and all who have read 
him are moderns."^ 

The history of her influence coincides with the 
history of her personal development, which it will 
be the purpose of the following chapters to 
develop. First to be considered is her early Puri- 
tan education, with its one-sidedness, and its moral 
. and religious rigorism, developing the intellect 
alone, and neglecting altogether the education of 
the heart, the truly human side of character. It 
will be shown how she rebelled against the Puri- 
tan church dogma, which seemed to have nothing 
in common with her inner life, and how she 
longed for a harmonious development of her 
whole being and nature, intellectual and emotional, 
through a full experience in life. We shall see how 
she found in Goethe, "the great apostle of individ- 
ual culture,"^ as she calls him, the means for such 
a development as she wished; how her nature, her 
soul expanded and she grew to be the strong per- 

^ Memoirs, I. 242. 

' JVoman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 124. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 3 

sonality she was. It will be shown how she ac- 
cepted and lived out, to a very large extent, 
Goethe's religious and philosophical doctrines of 
life; how she interpreted Goethe and his works 
and defended him against the severe criticism and 
prejudices of many of her countrymen; and finally, 
how she wielded a powerful influence in favor of 
a general study of German among the cultured of 
New England, and through them among the edu- 
cated over the whole country. 



MARGARET FULLER'S PLACE IN AMERICAN LITERA- 
TURE 

Margaret Fuller's influence and strong person- 
ality were probably felt for the first time in connec- 
tion with a club which had for one of its chief aims 
the liberation and deepening of American litera- 
ture. This literary club had its beginning prob- 
ably as early as 1833, and comprised finally in its 
membership the entire knot of original young 
thinkers then in New England. It contained on its 
list such names as Emerson, F. H. Hedge, George 
Ripley, Alcott, Theodore Parker, W. H. Chan- 
ning, J. F. Clarke, Elizabeth P. Peabody, and 



4 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

later Thoreau/ The club was called by various 
names, none of which, on account of the diversity 
of the views of Its members, seemed exactly to fit. 
It was called *'The Transcendental Club," "The 
Symposium Club," and occasionally "The Hedge 
Club," because the dates of Its monthly meetings 
were arranged to suit Dr. Hedge's visits to Boston 
from his home In Bangor, Maine. ^^, 

That Margaret Fuller was an active member 
of the club from the very beginning, and a recog- 
nized leader and guiding spirit. Is the testimony of 
all her biographers. She, too, was the leader In 
the famous Boston "Conversations," and later be- 
came editor of the Dial, the organ and mouthpiece 
of the whole "storm and stress" movement In 
American thought and literature. Mr. HIgglnson 
writes In his biography of her : "Apart from every 
word she ever wrote, Margaret Fuller will always 
be an Important figure In American history, for 
this plain reason: that she was the organizer and 
executive force of the first thoroughly Amer- 
ican literary enterprise [The Dial~\/^ So Im- 
portant Is this magazine that we must go to 
it to determine the real weight of this whole 

^ For a more comprehensive description of this club see Higgin- 
8on, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, pp. 130 flf. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 5 

literary and philosophical movement. It is the 
only authentic record. *'To know what Emerson 
individually was," continues Mr. Higginson, "we 
can go to his books; it is the same with Parker, 
Thoreau, Alcott. But what it was that united 
these diverse elements, what was their central 
spirit, what their collective strength or weakness, 
their maximum and minimum, their high and low 
water mark, this must be sought in the 'Dial'. 
That was the alembic within which they were all 
distilled, and the priestess who superintended this 
intellectual chemic process. . . . Margaret Ful- 
er." ^ Professor Trent in his American Litera- 
ture says of the Dial: ''Most important of all it 
gave a new impetus and in some ways a new direc- 
tion to literary energy, especially in New Eng- 
land." =^ * 

Concerning the quality of Margaret Fuller's 
writing and her power as a critic, Mr. Higginson 
says: "First she excelled in 'lyric glimpses', or 

^Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 130. 

^ Trent, American Literature, p. 318. 

* In what a noble and true spirit of patriotism she accomplished 
this great service for the literature of our country, and with 
what a sacrifice to herself, may be seen when we consider that 
she was promised for editing the Dial, only two hundred dollars 
a year, which were probably never paid her; since the other 
expenses of the magazine were about equal to the income from 
subscriptions. Still she writes in a letter: "It is for dear New 
England that I want this review." — Memoirs, II. 26. 



6 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

the power of putting a high thought Into a sen- 
tence. . . . She seems to me to have been, In 
the second place, the best literary critic whom 
America has yet seen".^ A. Bronson Alcott writes 
of her In 1839: "She has a deeper insight into 
character than any of her contemporaries, and will 
enrich our literature." ^ 

Horace Greeley's estimation of Margaret Ful- 
ler was that she was "one whom impartial judg- 
ment must pronounce the most capable and note- 
worthy American woman the world has yet 
known; " and of her works: "I believe the writ- 
ings of no other woman were ever so uniformly 
worthy of study and preservation." ^ 

If Margaret Fuller were considered only from 
the standpoint of the great influence she exerted 
upon the lives of our greatest American authors 
and thinkers, that alone ought to insure her a 
high place in the history of American thought and 
letters. 

James Freeman Clarke, the great Unitarian 
preacher and writer, says of her: "The difficulty 
which we all feel in describing our past intercourse 
and friendship with Margaret Fuller, is, that the 

^ Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, pp. 288, 290. 

Mbid., p. 148. 

* Introduction to Papers on Literature and Art, pp. i f. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 7 

intercourse was so intimate, and the friendship so 
personal, that It Is like making a confession to the 
public of our most Interior selves. For this noble 
person, by her keen Insight and her generous in- 
terest, entered Into the depth of every soul with 
which she stood In any real relation. To print one 
of her letters. Is like giving an extract from our 
own private journal." ^ The same author bears 
witness to Margaret Fuller's great power In bring- 
ing out that which was best and highest In every 
person who came under her strong influence: "I 
am disposed to think, much as she excelled In gen- 
eral conversation, that her greatest mental efforts 
were made in Intercourse with Individuals. All 
her friends will unite in the testimony, that what- 
ever they may have known of wit and eloquence in 
others, they have never seen one who, like her, 
by the conversation of an hour or two, could not 
merely entertain and Inform, but make an epoch In 
one*s life. We all dated back to this or that con- 
versation with Margaret, In which we took a com- 
plete survey of great subjects, came to some clear 
view of a difficult question, saw our way open be- 
fore us to a higher plane of life, and were led to 
some definite resolution or purpose which has had 

^Memoirs, I. 61. 



8 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

a bearing on all our subsequent career/' ^ In a 
letter to T. W. Higglnson, thirty years later, Mr. 
Clarke again writes (May 15, 1883) : "Margaret 
had so many aspects to her soul that she might 
furnish material for a hundred biographers, and 
all could not be said even then." " 

W. H. Channing, another one of her noted 
biographers, bears testimony to this same ability of 
Margaret Fuller to enter Into the most Intimate 
and beautiful relationship with the Intellectual and 
spiritual lives of those with whom she was asso- 
ciated. "I have no hope," he says, "of convey- 
ing to readers my sense of the beauty of our re- 
lation, as It lies In the past with brightness falling 
on It from Margaret's risen spirit. It would be 
like printing a chapter of auto-biography, to de- 
scribe what Is so grateful In memory. Its Influence 
upon one's self." ^ 

The fact that a man like Emerson became one 
of her most enthusiastic admirers and biographers 
Is, in Itself, an unassailable proof of her high posi- 
tion and Importance. No one speaks of her pow- 
erful Influence In more unmistakable language than 
he as he describes her relation to him. No one 

^Memoirs, I. 107. 

'Margaret Fuller MSS. Boston Public Library. 

'Memoirs, II. 9. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 9 

bears more positive proof of her high place among 
the thinkers and literary leaders of his time. In 
his masterly analysis of her mind and character, 
which Horace Greeley said, was "entitled to the 
praise of being the frankest, fairest, most ef- 
fective biography of our day," ^ Emerson sounds 
the deepest recesses of the heart of this notable 
woman and seeks to discover the sources of the 
influence she wielded and the power that flowed 
from her soul.* Of her personal influence on the 
great minds about her, Emerson says : "She wore 
this circle of friends, when I first knew her, as a 
necklace of diamonds about her neck. They were 
so much to each other, that Margaret seemed to 
represent them all, and, to know her, was to ac- 
quire a place with them. The confidences given her 
were their best, and she held them to them. She 
was an active, inspiring companion and corres- 
pondent, and all the art, the thought, and the 
nobleness in New England, seemed, at that mo- 
ment, related to her, and she to it."^ 

Concerning the many conversations that Mar- 

^ Introduction to Papers on Literature and Art, p. i. 

*It is rather strange that this biography, so much praised by 
Greeley, and as it seems to me, one of the best products of 
Emerson's mind in his great power of analyzing human char- 
acter, has to my knowledge, never been republished among hi3 
collected works. 

^Memoirs, I. 213. 



lo AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

garet Fuller held with Emerson, as after dinner 
they read, or walked, or rode, during the weeks 
she spent every year at Emerson's home, he 
writes: "They Interested me In every manner; 
talent, memory, wit, stern Introspection, poetic 
play, religion, the finest personal feeling, the as- 
pects of the future, each followed each In full 
activity, and left me, I remember, enriched and 
sometimes astonished by the gifts of my guest. 
Her topics were numerous, but the cardinal points 
of poetry, love, and religion, were never far off. 
. . . She was familiar with all the field of ele- 
gant criticism in literature."^ "The day was never 
long enough," Emerson writes again, "to exhaust 
her opulent memory; and I, who knew her Inti- 
mately for ten years, from July, 1836, to August, 
1846, when she sailed for Europe, never saw her 
without surprise at her new powers."" 

Finally, a passage from Emerson's journal 
shows the weight of the Influence she exercised 
upon this our greatest American thinker and phi- 
losopher: "I have no friend," says he, "whom I 
more wish to be Immortal than she. An Influence 
I cannot spare, but would always have at hand 
for recourse."^ 

^ Memoirs, I. 217 i. "Ibid., I. 214 f. ^ Margaret Fuller MSS. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ii 

j In 1846 on her tour through England and 
'Scotland Margaret Fuller visited Carlyle and 
his wife In their home. In spite of Carlyle's 
impression that Margaret Fuller was sometimes 
narrow, which was probably due In part to the 
fact that she opposed him In some of his views, he 
saw the rare qualities of her heart and mind/ He 
wrote ot her to Emerson: "Margaret Is an excel- 
lent soul: In real regard with both of us here 
[Carlyle and his wife]. Since she went, I have 
been reading some of her Papers In a new Book we 
have got: greatly superior to all I knew before; In 
fact the undeniable utterances (now first undeni- 
able to me) of a true heroic mind; altogether 
unique, so far as I know among the Writing 
Women of this generation; rare enough too, God 
knows, among the writing Men. She Is very nar- 
row, sometimes; but she Is truly high: honor to 
Margaret, and more and more good-speed to 
her."^ 

This testimony from so many diverse sources 
establishes once for all, Margaret Fuller's power- 
ful Influence upon some of our greatest thinkers 
and our most famous literary men ; It fixes the high 

* See At Home and Abroad, pp. 183 fF, 

^ The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo 
Emerson, 1834-1872, Boston, 1888, Vol. II., p. 155. 



12 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

position she held In this, the most important 
movement — the creative period — In American 
literature. 

How much credit Is due to the band of young 
reformers, among whom Margaret Fuller was a 
guiding spirit, may be seen when we consider the 
conditions in which they found our literature and 
what they did to elevate it. Our literature during 
the third and fourth decades of the last century 
was still in the first stages of its making. It Is true 
that Charles Brockden Brown, Irving, and Cooper 
had written a few novels and sketches of real 
merit; yet, on the whole, our literature was char- 
acterized, as Margaret Fuller has well said, by a 
"half boastful, half timid, boyish crudity." ^ It 
lacked real virile power and the positive national 
stamp. What made conditions still worse was that 
the few writers who possessed some talent sought 
their inspiration abroad and wrote in the spirit of 
imitation. Margaret Fuller writing In the Dial of 
this false tendency said: *'Some thinkers may ob- 
ject to this essay, that we are about to write of that 
which has, as yet, no existence. For It does not 
follow because many books are written by per- 
sons born in America that there exists an Amer- 

* Memoirs, II. 7. Art, Literature, and the Drama, p. 298. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 13 

ican Literature. Books which imitate or repre- 
sent the thoughts and life of Europe do not consti- 
tute an American literature."^ 

Even Longfellow was among those who were 
of the candid opinion that our literature was to be 
of a conglomerate or composite nature, merely 
uniting within itself all the foreign elements rep- 
resented in this country; nothing more. As 
late as 1847 he writes in his journal: "Much 
is said now-a-days of a national literature. Does 
it mean anything? Such a literature is the expres- 
sion of national character. We have, or shall 
have, a composite one, embracing French, Spanish, 
Irish, English, Scotch, and German peculiarities. 
Whoever has within himself most of these is our 
truly national writer."^ Again, somewhat earlier, 
(1844) he writes in a letter: "Vast forests, lakes, 
and prairies cannot make great poets. They are 
but the scenery of the play, and have much less 
to do with the poetic character than has been 
imagined."^ It did not occur to Longfellow until 
much later — until he, himself, had turned his 
poetic talent definitely to native American themes 



^ Art, Literature and the Drama, p. 298. 

'Life of Henry JVadsivorth Longfelloio. Boston and New 
York, 1893. Vol. II. 73 f. 
'Ibid, II. 19 f. 



14 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

— that among new scenes, and fresh native im- 
pulses, and with a new national feeling, greater 
personal freedom, and broader and more liberal 
political views, we Americans could develop 
something original, as we have done, a literature 
distinctly characteristic of our country, differing 
in some respects from any and all other litera- 
tures, and corresponding to the American type of 
character. It is of Longfellow, as he was at this 
period, and of the poets who believed as he did, 
and wrote accordingly — '^Colonists," as Margaret 
Fuller calls them — that she writes : 

"What shall we say of the poets? The list is 
scanty; amazingly so, for there is nothing in the 
causes that could affect lyrical and narrative poetry 
... Of the myriad leaves garnished with 
smooth stereotyped rhymes that issue yearly from 
our press, you will not find, one time in a million, a 
little piece written from any such impulse [of the 
heart], or with the least sincerity or sweetness of 
tone. They are written for the press, in the spirit 
of imitation or vanity, the paltriest offspring of the 
human brain, for the heart disclaims, as the ear 
is shut against them." ^ 

* Margaret Fuller in article on American Literature in the 
Dial. Literature and Art, Part II. 130. Art, Literature, and 
the Drama, p. 306. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 15 

Margaret Fuller here puts her finger upon the 
two cardinal faults of our literature of the time, 
especially the poetry. She lays bare the seat of the 
disease that kept It from growing and flowering. 
Our literature lacked, first of all, originality and 
secondly, depth. It was not an expression of the 
Innermost feelings of the heart, as it should be, 
feelings that arise out of personal experiences in 
life. 

A distinctive and most creditable feature of the 
criticism of Margaret Fuller and her companions 
is its positive, and constructive character. While 
these reformers could not and would not bear 
anything pedantic, and attacked with all their 
might what they thought shallow, narrow, or false 
in life and literature, they enthusiastically offered 
In its stead something better and more substantial. 
With what enthusiasm and high hope they carried 
on this reform may be seen from the following 
passage by Emerson In the Dial: "He who doubts 
whether this age or this country can yield any 
contribution to the literature of the world only 
betrays his own blindness of the necessity of the 
human soul." ^ To enable an American literature 
to grow up in our country, writes Margaret Ful- 

^ Higglnson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 137. 



i6 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

ler: "an original Idea must animate this nation 
and fresh currents of life must call Into life fresh 
thoughts along Its shores." Imitation will not suf- 
fice. We, "a mixed race . . . with ample field 
and verge enough to range in and leave every Im- 
pulse free, and abundant opportunity to develop 
a genius, wide and full as our rivers, flowery, lux- 
uriant and impassioned as our vast prairies," are 
ourselves able to develop a creditable and glorious 
literature of our own, for "Men's hearts beat, 
hope, and suffer always, and they must crave such 
means to vent them." ^ Such were the thoughts 
and literary Ideals of this new movement In which 
Margaret Fuller played such an important part. 
Ideals as grand as those which Goethe and his as- 
sociates set up for German literature during the 
"Storm and Stress" period in Germany. Such a 
literature. Inspired by native impulses and envi- 
ronments, and grown upon our own American soil, 
a literature which expresses feelings that spring 
from personal experiences In life, and that has Its 
foundations deep In the heart, is not only national, 
but universal. 

What the effect of these new doctrines was, and 
how well the originators carried out their high 

* Article on American Literature in the Dial. Art, Literature, 
and the Drama, pp. 298 f. 306. 



AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 17 

Ideals, and In turn handed them down to their 
literary successors, Is well known. "After fifty 
years of national life," says Mr. HIgglnson, "the 
skylark and nightingale were at last dethroned 
from our literature, and In the very first volume of 
the 'Dial' the blue-bird and wood-thrush took their 
place. Since then, they have held their own; . . . 
Americans still go to England to hear the skylark, 
but Englishmen also come to America to hear the 
bobolink."^ 

A few words ought to be said concerning the 
writers who criticised Margaret Fuller unjustly. 
Some of these criticisms are due to a misunder- 
standing of her true nature and the purpose she 
had In view, and are honest. This misunderstand- 
ing was partly because of her straight-forward 
and often too plain-spoken manner of address, and 
because of the unfavorable Impression she so 
often made In public upon those not well ac- 
quainted with her. There are, however, several 
criticisms of her written out of malice and spite, 
assailing her at every point, not sparing even her 
character. Editors and authors In her time often 
sought to revenge themselves, by personal abuse, 
for some literary slight, or perhaps, for an unfav- 

^ Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 137. 



i8 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

orable criticism of some of their works. The 
tomahawk theory was still In practice and men did 
not hesitate to "get even." This probably ac- 
counts for Edgar Allan Poe's scathing, unjust re- 
marks concerning her, and his frequently dishonest 
criticisms of others who happened to provoke his 
ire.^ Lowell Is guilty of the same thing, though 
mildly so. In his Fahle for Critics, In which he 
satirizes Margaret Fuller's individual characteris- 
tics In "Miranda." ^ Hawthorne, too, failed here 
and there, to do her justice, though he seems to 
have been on good terms with her generally.^ For 
us It Is enough to judge her by what she wrote 
and did, and by the verdict passed upon her by 
such men as Emerson, Greeley, J. F. Clarke, and 
W. H. Channing, men who knew her best, and 
who, we are sure, gave their honest, candid opin- 
ion of her. 



^*See for examples of Poe's bitter criticism and literary satire, 
his works (Chicago, 1896), Vol. VI. 245; IX. 259. 

' The Writings of James Russell Loivell. (Riverside Edition) 
III. 67 ff. 

*See Hawthorne's American Note Books. Entry for August 
22, 1842. 



MARGARET FULLER AND 
GOETHE 

Chapter I 

EARLY EDUCATION 

"What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded 
clearness of the Intuitive powers, which a perfectly 
truthful adherence to every admonition of the 
higher instincts would bring to a finely organized 
human being. . . . Should these faculties have 
free play, I believe they will open new, deeper and 
purer sources of joyous inspiration than have yet 
refreshed the earth. Let us be wise and not im- 
pede the soul."^ A natural development of the 
highest intuitive powers of the soul, by means of 
a full experience of life, this was Margaret 
Fuller's broad doctrine of education;- yet she, 
herself, never had the advantage of such a bring- 
ing up. 

^ Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. ii6. 
'See Memoirs, I. 132 ff. 

19 



20 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Margaret Fuller* received her early education 
In her home. Her father, a lawyer and politician, 
"a man of business, even In literature,"^ as she 
characterizes him In a sketch of her youth In an 
autobiographical romance, was her teacher. 

* Sarah Margaret Fuller, the eldest child of Timothy Fuller, 
was born at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, May 23, 1810. Her 
girlhood days, except two years during whi^ch she attended the 
girls' school of the Misses Prescott at Groton, Massachusetts, 
were spent in and about Cambridge. At Cambridge and Boston 
she met and made friends with many noted men and women who 
remained her enthusiastic admirers through life. In 1833 the 
Fuller family removed to Groton. Here, besides her studies, 
Miss Fuller had many family cares and household duties to 
look after. Her father dying in 1835, increased these burdens 
until her health became seriously impaired. She had to give up. 
her long cherished hope of going abroad, to help support and 
care for the family and contribute towards educating her brothers 
and sisters. During 1836-37 she taught in A. Bronson Alcott's 
school in Boston, and 1837-38 in the Green Street School at 
Providence, Rhode Island. In 1839 the Fuller family moved to 
Jamaica Plain, where they resided during the next three years. 
After that they returned to Cambridge and remained there until 
the home was broken up in 1844. Margaret Fuller published in 
1839 a translation of Eckermann's Conversations nvitk Goethe, 
which was followed in 1842 by a translation of The Letters of 
Gilnderode and Bettine von Arnim. During the summer of 
1843 Miss Fuller took a trip on, and in the vicinity of the Great 
Lakes. Summer on the Lakes, published during the same year, 
is an account of her experiences and impressions on this trip. 
Woman in the Nineteenth Century came out in 1844, and Papers 
on Literature and Art, a collection of her magazine and news- 
paper articles previously published, in 1846. In 1852, her col- 
lected works, edited by her brother, appeared, in which the 
volume. At Home and Abroad, including a poetic translation of 
Goethe's Tasso, and much besides which had never before ap- 
peared was published. Later in 1895, and 1903, two additional 
works, Margaret and Her Friends, a synopsis of ten "Conversa- 
tions" held in Boston, 1839-40, and the Love Letters of Margaret 
Fuller appeare d. Her most important work, however, was as 

^Ibid., L14. 



EARLY EDUCATION 21 

He was of Puritan stock, doubtless conscien- 
tious and well-meaning in his way, a man 
of vigor and well-informed, since he gradu- 
ated with honors from Harvard University. But 
he was also a man of undue self-assertion, often 
very impractical, and in some respects narrow. 
He was "a character, in its social aspect, of quite 
the common sort," said his daughter. His great 
aim of existence was to be an honored citizen, and 
to have a home, "to work for distinction in the 
community, and for the means of supporting a 
family."^ 

Margaret Fuller's description of her mother, 
also of Puritan stock, is, that she was ''one of 
those fair and flowerlike natures, which some- 
editor of the Dial, 1840-42, and as literary and art critic for 
the Nezv York Tribune, 1844-46. In 1846 she sailed for Europe, 
and after spending some time on a visit in England and France, 
where she made the acquaintance of some of the most noted 
literary men and women then living, she took up her residence 
in Italy. There she met and married, in 1847, ^he Marquis 
Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, a friend of Mazzini. She became much 
interested in the Italian Revolution of 1848-49, and was present 
with her husband in Rome during the siege. While her hus- 
band fought on the walls she took charge of one of the hospitals 
for the wounded within the city. She also wrote during these 
years a History of the Italian revolution. On May 17, 1850, 
the Ossolis sailed on the merchant vessel, Elizabeth, for America, 
but the vessel was wrecked, July 19, off Fire Island, and 
Margaret, her husband, and child perished. The manuscripts 
of her last work, that on the Italian revolution, as also possibly, 
the notes she had taken on the Life of Goethe were lost in th« 
wreck. 

^Memoirs, I. 12. 



22 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

times spring up even beside the most dusty high- 
ways of life — a creature not to be shaped into 
a merely useful instrument, but bound by one law 
with the blue sky, the dew, and the frolic birds. 
Of all persons whom I have known, she had in 
her most of the angelic — of that spontaneous love 
for every living thing, for man, and beast, and 
tree, which restores the golden age."^ Mr. Ful- 
ler's love for her, says Margaret, 'Vas the green 
spot on which he stood apart from the common- 
places of a mere bread-winning, bread-bestowing 
existence."^ "She was 'timidly friendly'," says 
Mr. HIgglnson, and "must have been one of the 
sweetest and most self-effacing wives ever ruled 
by a strong-willed spouse."" 

Margaret inherited characteristics from both 
her parents. Her lofty idealism, her love of the 
true and beautiful in character, as in nature — the 
tendency toward these, she Inherited from her 
mother. Her accurate habits of mind, her great 
intellectuality and strong personality, but also, 
her lack of social tact, and a certain abruptness 
of manner, which so often repelled those not well 
acquainted with her, and caused them to heap 

^Memoirs, I. 12 f. 
'Memoirs, I. 12. 
^Higginson, Margaret Fuller. 



EARLY EDUCATION 23 

much unjust criticism upon her, but which really 
hid a kind and noble heart — all these traits she 
Inherited, to a large extent, from her father. * 
-4- Unfortunately, In some respects, for Margaret, 
her father took her entire education Into his own 
hands, and from early childhood brought her up 
In the strafght-jacket Puritan manner. Education, 
as he understood the term, meant merely a de- 
velopment of the mental faculties, "an Intellectual 
forcing process," says Mr. Hlgglnson. This sys- 
tem was the one generally adopted and practised 
at the time throughout New England and In most 
parts of the civilized world. It was thus that Mar- 
garet's bodily health, and those greater qualities 
of heart and character with which nature had so 
richly endowed her from the maternal side, were 
neglected, or left to develop themselves, as best 
they could, during these early years. Her deeper 
nature continually rebelled and cried out against 
this one-sided, mere Intellectual training, the de- 
velopment of the mind, to the neglect of her heart 
and bodily health. 

Margaret began the study of Latin at six years 
of age. Though her father thought to do well 
by her, and took great pleasure In Instructing his 
oldest child himself, she says : "He was a severe 



24 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

teacher, both from habits of mind and his ambi- 
tion for me. . . . He had no belief in minds that 
listen, wait, and receive. He had no conception 
of the subtle and indirect motions of imagination 
and feeling." ' This very important side of her 
nature had therefore no chance for development; 
"since," she says, "I must put on the fetters"; for 
"his influence on me was great, and opposed to 
the natural unfolding of my character."* 

Tasks were given the child, "as many and 
various as the hours would allow." Since her 
father did not return from his office until the day 
was over, she had to recite to him in the evening. 
She was thus frequently kept up very late, because 
they were often interrupted. Her mind and her 
feelings were "kept on the stretch" late into the 
night, when she, or any child of her tender years, 
should have been in bed asleep and at rest for 
several hours. 

"The consequence," continues Margaret Fuller, 

^Memoirs, I. 15 ff. 

♦Arthur B. Fuller, the brother of Margaret, wrote that their 
father's sternness and exacting manner, as she has described it, 
and his overlooking, to a certain extent, the physical health of 
his daughter by tasking to the utmost her extraordinary powers, 
leaves a wrong impression of his real nature. It was, he says, 
through error and his great zeal for his daughter, and not 
through lack of love or kindness, that he caused her to suffer. 
Preface to Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Boston, 1874, 
p. 4f. 



EARLY EDUCATION 25 

"was a premature development of the brain, that 
made me a 'youthful prodigy' by day, and by 
night a victim of spectral Illusions, nightmare, and 
somnambulism, which at the time prevented the 
harmonious development of my bodily powers and 
checked my growth, while, later they induced con- 
tinual headache, weakness and nervous affections, 
of all kinds. As these again re-acted on the brain, 
giving undue force to every thought and ^ery 
feeling, there was finally produced a state of being 
both too active and too Intense, which wasted my 
constitution."^ ''Poor child!" she writes years 
afterward, "Far remote In time, In thought, from 
that period, I look back on these glooms and ter- 
rors, wherein I was enveloped, and perceive that 
I had no natural childhood." ^ In 1844, In refer- 
ring to the Improved methods In education, phys- 
ical, as also mental and spiritual, she writes In her 
diary : "If we had only been as well brought up In 
these respects ! It was not mother's fault that she 
was ignorant of every physical law, young, un- 
taught country girl as she was; but I can't help 
mourning, sometimes, that my bodily health 
should have been so destroyed by the Ignorance of 
both my parents." ^ 

'Memoirs, I. 15. ■ ^bid., I. 16. 

' Diary, 1844, quoted by Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 22. 



26 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

It was with her books that Margaret Fuller at 
this period passed her days, especially Latin 
works, of which she must have read a great 
many. Besides Latin, she mentions in these early 
years, English grammar and Greek. The latter, 
however, she did not learn as thoroughly as Latin 
— "only enough to feel that the sounds told the 
same story as the mythology," ^ which charmed 
her very much. "Within the house," she contin- 
ues, "everything was socially utilitarian; my books 
told of a proud world." One joy which she 
found, however, was the little garden near the 
house, of which she cannot say enough and 
where she came into heart-to-heart touch with 
nature at first hand. She felt, too, a great 
pleasure in viewing the sunset. Of friends, 
she speaks with rapture of her attachment 
for a cultured young English lady, who was 
paying a visit to America, and who seemed to 
Margaret to have developed within her exactly 
that which Margaret then unconsciously sought, 
namely, her inner life and soul. Outside of these 
two pleasures, which are suited to the tempera- 
ment of an older person rather than to that of a 
child, her childhood seems to have been particu- 

^ Memoirs, I. a2. 



EARLY EDUCATION 27 

larly barren of the many little friendships with 
others of her own age, and the various pleasures 
and pastimes in which children usually take so 
much delight. Writing of this period later, she 
says: "The common prose world [was] so pres- 
ent to me."^ 

It was this merely living in books and phrases 
that made her admire so much those Greeks and 
Romans of whom she studied. "I lived in those 
Greek forms the true faith of a refined and intense 
childhood," she writes. "So great was the force 
of reality with which these forms impressed me, 
that I prayed earnestly for a sign — that it would 
lighten in some particular region of the heavens, 
or that I might find a bunch of grapes in the path, 
when I went forth in the morning. But no sign 
was given, and I was left a waif stranded upon 
the shores of modern life." - Her feeling for the 
Romans was nothing short of ecstacy. They ap- 
peared to her to live real, positive lives, they pos- 
sessed personality, were real men of flesh and 
blood; natural, vigorous, practical men of deeds. 
They had at least one side of their character 
developed that had been neglected in her educa- 
tion; and feeling this want in herself, made her 

^Memoirs, I. 18. "Ibid., I. 21 f. 



28 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

admire them and long for the qualities which dis- 
tinguished them. "I thought with rapture," she 
writes, "of the all-accomplished man, him of 
many talents, wide resources, clear sight, and om- 
nipotent will. A Caesar seemed great enough." 
"Horace was a great deal to me then, and is so 
still. . . . He is a natural man of the world; he 
is what he ought to be." "It never shocks us that 
the Roman is self-conscious. One wants no uni- 
versal truths from him, no philosophy, no crea- 
tion, but only his life, his Roman life felt in every 
pulse, realized in every gesture." It was not long, 
however, until these characters seemed insufficient 
to her. As soon as she learned to know from the 
works of Shakespeare, Moliere, and Cervantes 
characters that were better rounded out she felt 
that too much emphasis was laid on the external 
side of the Greek and Roman characters, and not 
enough on the internal. "I did not then know," 
she says, "that such men impoverish the treasury 
to build the palace." ^ 

When Margaret was thirteen years old she was 
already so mature in mind and appearance that 
she sought her companions among girls much 
older than herself ; yet socially she was, in general, 

^ Memoirs, I. 20 ff. 



EARLY EDUCATION 29 

without success. Her father, realizing that he 
had made a mistake in her bringing-up, saw 
that she lived too much in her books, and was 
therefore unable to appear well in society. She 
had spent some time at the celebrated school of 
Dr. Park In Boston, but now her father decided 
to send her to the girls' school of the Misses Pres- 
cott at Groton. Here, according to her own ac- 
count, she suffered much because of her social 
eccentricities and inability to mix well with the 
other girls of the school. She Improved much 
in these respects, however, while here, and re- 
turned home after two years, much benefited by 
her experiences. Nevertheless she writes, some- 
what later, concerning the faults of the educa- 
tional system, as it then was, and of her teachers: 
"I was now In the hands of teachers, who had not, 
since they came on the earth, put to themselves 
one Intelligent question as to their business here. 
. . . They, no doubt. Injured those who ac- 
cepted the husks they proffered for bread, and be- 
lieved that exercise of memory was study, and to 
know what others knew, was the object of 
study." ^ 

Upon her return from Groton she continued 

^Memoirs, I. 132. 



30 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

her studies at home after the same manner as be- 
fore, developing the intellect and neglecting the 
other natural faculties that go to make up life and 
character. How Industriously she worked and 
what subjects she covered, may be learned from 
a letter dated July, 1825, and addressed to one 
of her former teachers at Groton, 

"I rise a little before five, walk an hour, and 
then practice on the piano, till seven, when we 
breakfast. Next I read French — SIsmondl's Liter- 
ature of the South of Europe — till eight, then 
two or three lectures In Brown's Philosophy. 
About half past nine I go to Mr. Perkins' school 
and study Greek till twelve, when, the school being 
dismissed, I recite, go home, and practice again 
till dinner, at two. . . . Then, when I can, I read 
two hours in Italian, but am often Interrupted. 
At six, I walk, or take a drive. Before going to 
bed I play or sing, for half an hour or so, to make 
all sleepy, and, about eleven, retire to write a 
little while In my journal, exercises on what I have 
read, or a series of characteristics which I am 
filling up according to advice. Thus, you see, I 
am learning Greek, and making acquaintance with 
metaphysics, and French and Italian literature." ^ 

^ Memoirs, I. 52 f. 



EARLY EDUCATION 31 

The next year we find her reading Madame de 
Stael, for whom she felt much enthusiasm, Eplc- 
tetus, Milton, Racine, and the Castlllan ballads. 
During the next two years she makes the acquaint- 
ance of Locke, and reads Madame de Stael's 
comments on his system. Among many other 
books on various subjects, she reads Russell's Tour 
in Germany, which she calls "a most interesting 
book." 

From the accounts above we may fairly judge 
that she covered in her studies, up to the time she 
was twenty-two years old (1832), more or less 
thoroughly, the whole field of English, Latin, 
French, Spanish, and Italian literatures, besides 
dipping somewhat Into Greek and philosophy. 

Emerson however, makes a note that when she 
came to Concord, about 1835, she was little 
read in Shakespeare. This is important, for the 
one author who could best have developed the 
side of her nature so much neglected, that Is, her 
feelings and inner life, was rather slighted. Of 
the good effects of her study of all these authors 
and this mass of literature, she writes: "They 
taught me to distrust all Invention which is not 
based on a wide experience." But, she adds: 
'Terhaps, too, they taught me to overvalue an out- 



32 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

ward experience at the expense of inward growth; 
but all this I did not appreciate until later.'" 

Very interesting it is to study Margaret Fuller's 
early religious training in her home, and the atti- 
tude she took toward the New England church of 
the day. Mrs. Howe describes the orthodox 
churchman as a ^'stern Presbyterian, with his dog- 
mas and his task-work, the city circle arid the 
college, with their niggard conceptions and unfeel- 
ing stare."- The church as it was then failed 
utterly to satisfy the wants and longings of her 
inner life. 

Of Sunday in her home and at church, she 
writes: "This day was punctiliously set apart in 
our house. . . . The day was pleasing to me, as 
relieving me from the routine of tasks and reci- 
tations; . . . still the church going, where I 
heard nothing that had any connection with my 
inward life, and these rules, gave me associations 
with the day of empty formalities, and arbitrary 
restrictions; but though the forbidden book or 
walk always seemed more charming then, I was 
seldom tempted to disobey."^ 

How strictly Margaret, then but a little girl, 



* Memoirs, I. 30 f. ^ Howe, Margaret Fuller^ p. 123. 

* Memoirs^ I. 26. 



EARLY EDUCATION 33 

was held to these "arbitrary rules" may be gath- 
ered from a description of her experience upon 
the occasion of her first acquaintance with Shake- 
speare. She had taken down a volume of his 
works, one winter Sunday afternoon, and become 
deeply interested in Romeo and Juliet. Her 
father, taking notice, asked what book she was 
reading. "Shakespeare," she answered. "Shake- 
speare! — that won't do; that's no book for 
Sunday; go put it away and take another." She 
put it away, but her deep interest m the characters 
whose acquaintance she had just made tempted 
her to take the book again. When asked a second 
time what she was reading, she answered, "Shake- 
speare." "How?" answered her father, angrily, 
"Give me the book and go directly to bed." She 
went, but could not sleep, because her "fancies 
swarmed like bees," as she devised and formed 
in her own mind a conclusion to the story she had 
begun. Soon her father came in to argue the 
case with her, but to no avail. She could feel no 
sympathy with these empty rules and formalities. 
The world of these plays was different; there she 
found a "free flow of life," which "brought home 
the life I seemed born to live." ^ 

^ Memoirs, I. 26 f. 



34 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Again, at the age of fifteen, she mentions in a 
letter (July, 1825), her disinclination to go to 
church. "Having excused myself from accom- 
panying my honored father to church, which I 
always do in the afternoon, when possible, I de- 
vote to you the hours. . . etc."^ 

Perhaps the strongest statement of her revul- 
sion against the Puritan theology and religious 
customs is in the following passage : 

"It was Thanksgiving Day (November, 1831), 
and I was obliged to go to church, or exceedingly 
displease my father. I almost always suffered 
much in church from a feeling of disunion with 
the hearers and dissent from the preacher; but 
to-day, more than ever before, the services jarred 
upon me from their grateful and joyful tone." ^ 

Much as Margaret Fuller felt at variance 
with the church, she sought earnestly, never- 
theless, to find comfort for her inner life in the 
regular orthodox religion. This is shown in the 
continuation of the description of her experiences 
on this same Thanksgiving Day. Wearied out with 
mental conflicts and in a sad frame of mind, she 
sought relief and solitude by a walk into the fields. 
The day was cold and the sky gloomy. Suddenly 

^Memoirs,!. 52. ^Ibid., 139. 



EARLY EDUCATION 35 

the sunshine burst through the clouds and flooded 
her surroundings "with that transparent sweet- 
ness, like the last smile of a dying lover." ^ A 
happier spirit came over her soul and made her 
feel herself nearer to the Divine Being, and she 
seemed, for the moment, reconciled. But If we 
read more closely this same description, we see 
clearly that her feeling Is rather a momentary 
resignation of self, than one of lasting comfort 
and Inspiration. It Is a giving up of her dearest 
hopes, an ejEfacing of all Individuality and finding 
a temporary happiness In this mystic negation of 
soul. "I saw," she writes, "there was no self; 
. . . that It was only because I thought self real 
that I suffered; that I had only to live In the Idea 
of the All and all was mine. ... In that true 
ray most of the relations of earth seemed mere 
films, phenomena." ~ 

It Is very readily seen that had this ne- 
gation of self been permanent, and had she 
remained In this frame of mind and state of 
feeling, beautiful as It all seemed to her then, 
her development would have stopped right 
there, and she never would have become the 

^Memoirs, I. 140, 141. ^Ibid., 140, 141. 



36 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

strong, positive force, the energetic character that 
we know her. 

This does not mean that Margaret Fuller had 
no deep religious instincts. That she did have, 
is evident from her religious Credo^ of 1842, and 
from the numerous ardent prayers quoted from 
her letters and journal by her biographers. She, 
too, was as capable as anybody of enjoying a good 
humanitarian sermon, one that was full of thought 
and encouragement and that bore a real relation 
to her inner life. She has left on record many 
beautiful tributes to the preaching of such men 
as Emerson, Dr. W. E. Channing, W. H. Chan- 
ning, and J. F. Clarke. Yet It Is nevertheless true 
that her religious belief, as shown by her Credo 
and her private letters, was quite different from 
that of any of these men and from any of the 
contemporary New England churches. Especially 
is it true that she was in open dissent with the 
religious dogma of the church of her parents — 
the Puritan. 

Aside from the fact that she was not orthodox. 
It is hard to say just what her religious belief was 
prior to 1832. Somewhat later, after she had 
studied German a year or so, she writes In answer 

*See Appendix, p. 247 ff. 



EARLY EDUCATION 37 

to a letter from J. F. Clarke, in which he seems 
to have enquired after her religious life and be- 
lief: "Very early I knew that the only object in 
life was to grow." She further states that though 
she "was often false to this knowledge, in idola- 
tries of particular objects," ^ she had never lost 
sight of this aim. In a letter dated May 4, 1830, 
Margaret Fuller describes just how she would 
like to see a person of genius developed. We 
may take for granted that she herself at that time 
eagerly desired to be brought to a full realization 
of life and of her powers in the same way. 

"I have greatly wished to see among us," she 
writes, "such a person of genius as the nineteenth 
century can afford — i. e., one who has tasted in 
the morning of existence the extremes of good 
and ill, both imaginative and real. I had imag- 
ined a person endowed by nature with that acute 
sense of Beauty, (i. e., Harmony or Truth), 
and that vast capacity of desire which give soul 
to love and ambition. ... I would have had 
him go on steadily, feeding his mind with con- 
genial love, hopefully confident that if he only 
nourished his existence into perfect life, Fate 
would, at fitting season, furnish an atmosphere and 

^Memoirs, I. 132 f. 



38 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

orbit meet for his breathing and exercise. I wished 
he might adore, not fever for, the bright phan- 
toms of his mind's creation, and believe them but 
the shadows of external things to be met with 
hereafter. After this steady intellectual growth 
had brought his powers to manhood, so far as 
the ideal can do it, I wished this being might be 
launched into the world of realities, his heart 
glowing with the ardor of an immortal toward 
perfection, his eyes searching everywhere to behold 
it; I wished he might collect into one burning 
point those withering, palsying convictions, which, 
in the ordinary routine of things, so gradually 
pervade the soul; that he might suffer, in brief 
space, agonies of disappointment commensurate 
with his unpreparedness and confidence. And I 
thought, thus thrown back on the representing 
pictorial resources I supposed him originally to 
possess, with such material, and the need he must 
feel of using it, such a man would suddenly dilate 
into a form of Pride, Power, and Glory, a center, 
round which asking, aimless hearts might rally — a 
man fitted to act as Interpreter to the one tale 
of many-languaged eyes!"^ 

It is interesting to note how she longs for just 

^Memoirs, I. 69 f. 



EARLY EDUCATION 39 

such a development of character as she finds later 
in the great characters of Goethe — In Faust and 
Wilhelm Meister. Beyond the mere longing, how- 
ever, she seems at this period not to have made 
any progress towards a realization of this Ideal. 

In concluding this chapter we find Margaret 
Fuller at the age of twenty-two (1832) a young 
woman of high sensibilities, with a lively, active 
mind. Her mind, however, has been developed 
out of all proportion to her other powers, in fact, 
to the neglect of these: In her own words, her 
"true life . . . was secluded and veiled over by 
a thick curtain of available intellect."^ The ortho- 
dox church, too, has failed to satisfy her spiritual 
needs, In fact, has repelled her by its empty for- 
malities, narrow dogmas, controversial sermons, 
and arbitrary restrictions. We see also that she 
has a yearning for a deeper inner experience and 
growth, but that her inner nature had not yet been 
called out. 

*'How little," writes Julia Ward Howe, "were 
the beauties of her mind, the graces of her char- 
acter, guessed at or sought for by those who saw 
in her unlikeness to the popular or fashionable 

^Memoirs, p. i8. 



40 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

type of the time matter only for derisive 
comment!" ^ 

It will be the object of the following chapter to 
show how she supplemented her early, very im- 
perfect education by the teaching of her great 
second school-master, Goethe. We shall see with 
what enthusiasm she studied the "Great Sage," 
as she calls him, how she assimilated what she 
found, until it became an integral part of her 
nature, and thus rounded out her character and 
personality, until it reached its highest develop- 
ment and truest proportions. 

^ Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 47. 



Chapter II 
STUDY OF GERMAN 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARGARET FULLER'S 
INNER LIFE 

Margaret Fuller began the study of German In 
1832. Her Interest in this study was aroused, 
probably for the first time, through the works of 
Madame de Stael, whom she mentions in a letter 
as early as May, 1826. In this letter she calls 
her "Brilliant, . . useful too, but it is on the 
grand scaie, on liberalizing, regenerating princi- 
ples." ^ The next year she calls attention to her 
again. From this distinguished woman's works 
Margaret Fuller must have become acquainted 
with the Weimar circle — Goethe, Schiller, Herder, 
etc. In fact, Weimar Is mentioned by her in a 
letter January, 1828.^ She read, too, RusseWs 
Tour in Germany, in which she found some in- 
teresting material about German universities. But 
the greatest Incitement and the Immediate cause 

^Memoirs, I. 55. ^Ibid., p. 56. 

41 



42 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

for her study of German were, according to J. F. 
Clarke, the romantic articles of Thomas Carlyle 
on Goethe, Schiller, and RIchter, which appeared 
In the old Foreign Review^ The Edinburgh Re- 
view, and later In the Foreign Quarterly. Both 
she and Mr. Clarke were attracted to this litera- 
ture at the same time. 

'T believe," Mr. Clarke writes, "that In about 
three months from the time that Margaret com- 
menced German, she was reading with ease the 
masterpieces of Its literature. Within the year she 
had read Goethe's Faust, Tasso, Iphlgenle, Her- 
mann and Dorothea, Elective Affinities, and Mem- 
oirs; TIeck's William Lovel, Prince Zerbino, and 
other works; Korner, Novalls, and something of 
RIchter; all of Schiller's principal dramas, and his 
lyric poetry." ^ 

Margaret Fuller never took any formal instruc- 
tion in German, but was for the most part, except 
as to pronunciation, her own teacher. This is 
shown by the following two passages, the first 
from her diary of January, 1833, in which she 
writes: "I have now a pursuit of immediate Im- 
portance : to the German language and literature I 
will give my undivided attention. I have made 

^Memoirs, I. 114. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 43 

rapid progress for one quite unassisted/^ ^ The 
second is from a letter to Emerson, December, 
1842: "Italian, as well as German, I Teamed by 
myself, unassisted, except as to the pronuncia- 
tion." ' 

Her ability to comprehend the underlying prin- 
ciples and meaning of each author she studied, and 
to see the fine distinctions between them must have 
been little short of marvelous. This trait is dwelt 
on by Mr. Clarke. "The first and most striking 
element in the genius of Margaret was the clear, 
sharp understanding, which keenly distinguished 
between things different, and kept every thought, 
opinion, person, character, in its own place, not to 
be confounded with any other. . . . Every writer 
whom she studied, as every person whom she 
knew, she placed in his own class, knew his rela- 
tion to other writers, to the world, to life, to 
nature, to herself." ^ 

It was fortunate for Margaret Fuller that she 
grew up and lived during a number of years almost 
within the shadow of Harvard College. Her 
family was socially prominent and moved in 

Harvard circles. Margaret enjoyed, therefore, 

• 

^ Margaret Fuller's Diary, 1833, quoted by Higginson, Mar- 
garet Fuller Ossoli, p. 41. 

'Memoirs, I. 241. ' Ibid., I. 113. 



44 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

all the privileges that came from being brought up 
in an Intellectual atmosphere. During the period 
of Margaret Fuller's life with which this chapter 
deals, German scholarship and the study of Ger- 
man were arousing a great deal of interest at 
Harvard. Charles Follen was there, and George 
Ticknor and Edward Everett had just returned 
from Germany, where they had studied in the Ger- 
man universities. All were enthusiastic for Ger- 
man and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of 
German scholarship. Margaret Fuller came into 
close social contact with these distinguished men 
and German scholars, and with others who had 
been their pupils. 

The three men of her Immediate acquaintance 
who undoubtedly influenced Margaret Fuller most 
in the study of German were Charles Follen, 
Frederick Henry Hedge, and James Freeman 
Clarke. The first of these. Dr. Charles Follen, 
had already won a reputation as a scholar abroad, 
but had been compelled to flee to America as a 
political exile from Germany. He was a most 
broad-minded, public-spirited, and talented man, 
a man of high republican principles, and one of 
our first great and most enthusiastic anti-slavery 
advocates, a man who has as yet unfortunately not 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 45 

received the general recognition due him. He 
taught, at this time, German, ecclesiastical history, 
and ethics in Harvard College. His personality as 
well as his celebrity as a scholar, must undoubtedly 
have contributed considerably to the rise of in- 
terest in German literature in Cambridge and Bos- 
ton at just this time; for Mr. Higginson writes: 
"Every one who knew him was his friend." ^ Mar- 
garet Fuller must have met him often, for they 
moved in the same circles. 

Of great personal assistance to Margaret Fuller 
was Rev. Frederick Henry Hedge, an ardent 
friend of the Fuller family, and a contributor to 
Margaret Fuller's biography. He had studied 
several years In Germany, and had the reputation 
of being "a fountain of knowledge In the way of 
German." ^ From him she borrowed chiefly her 
German books, and discussed with him by letter, 
and doubtless also orally, what she had read. He 
also. Miss Edith D. Fuller writes,^ probably 
helped her somewhat with her pronunciation. 
*'HIs conversation," says J. F. Clarke, "was full of 
interest and excitement for her. He opened to her 

^ MS. letter of Mr. Higginson to Miss Edith D. Fuller, niece 
to Margaret Fuller, February, 1909. 

" Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 44. 

' MS. letter of Miss Edith D. Fuller, Feb. 1909. 



46 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

a whole world of thoughts and speculations which 
gave movement to her mind in a congenial direc- 
tion." ^ 

But the one who deserves most to be mentioned 
In this connection Is James Freeman Clarke, the 
great Unitarian preacher, author, and anti-slavery 
advocate, who had studied under Dr. Follen. He 
had already received a degree from Harvard Col- 
lege, and was now a student in the theological 
seminary. Nevertheless he still kept up, as he 
did nearly all his life, a lively interest in German 
writers, especially Goethe, of whose influence on 
him Dr. Edward Everett Hale says: "But espe- 
cially was he reading Goethe. And afterwards, 
in referring to those happy days, he would always 
speak with enthusiasm of the larger life which 
opened upon so many of them, under Goethe's 
lead." ^ It was probably Mr. Clarke chiefly who 
taught Margaret Fuller the German pronuncia- 
tion, since W. H. Channing writes: that he "was 
her constant companion In exploring the rich gar- 
dens of German literature."^ Mr. Clarke, him- 
self, in speaking of this period, says: "Almost 

^Memoirs, I. 90. 

'Autobiography, Diary, and Correspondence of James Freeman 
Clarke, p. 90 f. 
^Memoirs, II. 8. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 47 

every evening I saw her and heard an account of 
her studies." ^ ''She needed a friend to whom to 
speak of her studies, to whom to express the ideas 
which were dawning and taking shape in her mind. 
She accepted me for this friend." ^ 

Nothing could have awakened and quickened 
her mind, in fact, enlivened her whole being more 
than these her German studies. It was a period 
"with great intensity of the inner life," writes F. 
H. Hedge in the Memoirs, for "she read with the 
heart." She had "a passionate love for the beau- 
tiful, which comprehended all the kingdoms of 
nature and art." ^ She "framed an acquaintance 
with Goethe, who was destined in no small degree 
to influence her future life." * "With what eager- 
ness did she seek for knowldge !" Mr. Clarke 
writes : "What fire, what exuberance, what reach, 
grasp, overflow of thought, shone in her conversa- 
tion! . . . To me it [the association with her at 
this time] was a gift of the gods, an influence like 
no other." ^ "Her mind opened under this In- 
fluence, as the apple-blossom at the end of a warm 

^Memoirs, I. 114. 
= Ibid., I. 62. 
'Ibid., I. 93. 

*Note by F. H. Hedge among Margaret Fuller's MSS. in 
Boston Public Library. 
^Memoirs, I. 62. 



48 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

week In May. The thought and the beauty of this 
rich literature equally filled her mind and fascinat- 
ed her Imagination."^ "I recall other mornings 
[somewhat later on]", writes Mr. Clarke again, 
"when not having seen her for a week or two, I 
would walk with her for hours, beneath the lindens 
or In the garden, while we related to each other 
what we had read In our German studies. And I 
always left her astonished at the progress of her 
mind, at the amount of new thoughts she had 
garnered, and filled with a new sense of the worth 
of knowledge, and the value of life." ^ Life began 
to take on a different meaning for her under the 
vivifying Influence of these new thoughts. They 
became, as we see, a part of her Innermost soul and 
being. She felt a living interest In all she read. 
Her Inner life, so long neglected, began to grow, 
and her personality to expand; since for her, says 
Mr. Clarke, "Authors and their personages were 
not Ideal beings merely, but full of human blood 
and life." ' 

The amount of reading Margaret Fuller did in 
German, both In Cambridge, and In Groton, was 
simply marvelous. "I am having one of my 'in- 

^ Memoirs, I. 114. 
Mbid., 108. 
•Ibid., 114. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 49 

tense' times/' she writes from Groton, "devouring 
book after book. I never stop a minute, except to 
talk with mother."^ But the works of the differ- 
ent authors did not affect her equally. Lesslng's 
dramas she reads and thus criticizes: "Well con- 
ceived and sustained characters, interesting situa- 
tions. ... I think him easily followed; strong 
but not deep." ^ With Novalis she was charmed; 
for, in common with her associates, she had a 
Romantic note in her temperament. "The good 
Novalis," she says, "a wondrous youth," then 
quoting Geothe's phrase, whose "life was so full 
and so still. "^ His "one-sidedness, imperfection, 
and glow" are "refreshingly human," and "a re- 
lief, after feeling the immense superiority of 
Goethe." She wants to keep a Novalis journal for 
one of her friends, and to devote two articles in a 
series on German literature in a proposed literary 
magazine, to him and her favorite Korner, toward 
whom her attention was directed by Dr. Pollen. 
Korner "charms" her, and "has become a fixed 
star in the heaven of my thought," she writes; 
"Great is my love for both of them [Novalis and 
Korner]."* TIeck seems to her so Important that 

^ Memoirs, J. 16^. ^Ibid., 121. ^Ibid., 118 ff. 

* Ibid., I20, 169. 



50 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

she wishes to devote to him at least eight num- 
bers In the same proposed periodical, should It ap- 
pear. Of Jean Paul RIchter's "pages" she wishes 
to ''make a book, or, as he would say, bind me a 
bouquet from his pages and wear it on my heart 
of hearts," to refresh her "wearied Inward sense 
with Its exquisite fragrance." "I must have Im- 
proved," she concludes, "to love him as I do." ^ 
She translates into verse and quotes from him 
beautiful passages. Heine, too, and Uhland, from 
whom she also translates, are well known to her. 
She studies Ruble's and Tennemann's histories of 
Philosophy, and reads Fichte and Jacobl. Fichte 
she cannot understand. Jacobl she understands in 
detail, but not In system. His mind, she thinks, 
with marvelous Intuition, is moulded by some other 
mind, perhaps Spinoza, with whom she feels she 
ought to get acquainted to know Jacobl well. 
Later she studies Spinoza and discusses him with 
Theodore Parker. Herschel, too, she studies at the 
advice of Professor Farrar, and "really believes" 
she Is "a little wiser" as a result. A little later 
on she makes the acquaintance of Eichhorn and 
Jahn, and In 1836 translates for Dr. Channing, 
Herder and De Wette. 

^Memoirs, I. 130. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 51 

Great was Margaret Fuller's admiration for 
the German masters of music; and her highly ap- 
preciative article on these Masters In the Dial^ 
contributed much to stimulate the rising Interest In 
music In New England at the time, an Interest 
which has steadily grown In America until the 
present day. So heart-felt, In fact, was her ad- 
miration of the great composers that, upon re- 
turning from the Boston Academy of Music one 
evening, she addressed a letter to Beethoven in the 
spirit world. She calls him *'My only friend," 
and writes: "Thou, oh blessed Master! dost an- 
swer all my questions, and make It my privilege to 
be." ' 

But for none of these authors was her admira- 
tion so strong as for Schiller. She early read all 
his principal dramas and his lyric poetry, and later 
much of his prose works. So fascinated did she 
become with him and the characters he created that 
at one time she wrote ; ''I don't like Goethe so well 
as Schiller now. I mean I am not so happy In 
reading him. That perfect wisdom and merciless 
nature seems cold, after those seducing pictures of 
forms more beautiful than truth." ^ This prefer- 

^ See Art, Literature, and the Dramay p. 222. 
^Memoirs, I. 232 ff. 
'Ibid., 117. 



52 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

ence of Schiller to Goethe was, however, transi- 
tory, yet she mentions him many times throughout 
her works and In her letters, and quotes from him 
often. 

The power, however, that truly marks this 
greatest epoch In the development of her inner 
life, the Influence more powerful than all the 
others combined, the guiding star which shed light 
on her whole subsequent career and led her into a 
new world of thought and feeling, was Goethe. 
In his masterly analysis of Margaret Fuller's 
character and larger Inner life, Emerson writes : 

''Dante, Petrarca, Tasso, were her friends 
among the old poets, — for to Arlosto she assigned 
a far lower place, — Alfierl and ManzonI, among 
the new. But what was of still more import to her 
education, she had read German books, and, for 
the three years before I knew her, almost exclu- 
sively, — Lessing, Schiller, Richter, Tieck, Novalls, 
and, above all, Goethe. It was very obvious, 
at the first intercourse with her, though her rich 
and busy mind never reproduced undigested read- 
ing, that the last writer, — food or poison, — the 
most powerful of all mental reagents, — the pivotal 
mind in modern literature, .... — that this 
mind had been her teacher, and, of course, the 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 53 

place was filled, nor was there room for any other. 
She had that symptom which appears in all 
students of Goethe — an ill-dissembled contempt of 
all criticism on him which they hear from others, 
as if it were totally irrelevant. . . ." 

*'The effect on Margaret was complete," Emer- 
son continues. "She was perfectly timed to it. She 
found her moods met, her topics treated, the lib- 
erty of thought she loved, the same climate of 
mind. Of course, this book [i.e., Goethe's works] 
superseded all others, for the time, and tinged 
deeply all her thoughts. The religion, the science, 
the Catholicism, the worship of art, the mysticism 
and daemonology, and withal the clear recog- 
nition of moral distinctions as final and eternal, all 
charmed her; and Faust, and Tasso, and Mignon, 
and Makaria, and Iphigenie, became irresistible 
names. It was one of those agreeable historical 
coincidences, perhaps invariable, though not yet 
registered, the simultaneous appearance of a 
teacher and of pupils, between whom exists a 
strict affinity." ^ 

It is clearly evident from this passage by Emer- 
son and from other passages by Margaret Fuller 
herself, which are to follow, that Mr. Higginson 

^Memoirs, I. 242 ff. 



54 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

in his biography of Margaret Fuller greatly un- 
derestimates the influence of Goethe on her when 
he tries to make it appear, from a single broken 
passage quoted from one of her letters, that she 
merely looked upon Goethe as a great thinker, 
and not as a guide, or a friend." 

There are, however, other passages here and 
there, throughout her works, like the one quoted 
by Mr. Higginson, that give evidence of a reminis- 
cence or a residue, still in her nature, of the Puri- 
tan doctrines, bequeathed to her from many gen- 
erations. This part of her nature continually 
struggled for utterance against the broader and 
more comprehensive views of life taught by 
Goethe. Then, too, an enormous outside pressure 
was brought to bear on her in the same direction, 
since so far as spiritual teaching and the rigor of 
their asceticism is concerned, the Transcendental- 
ists had much in common with their Puritan an- 
cestors. These combined inner and outer forces in 
Margaret Fuller's case, therefore, were not wholly 
without effect. It is this that made her lean at 
times toward an unemotional spirituality and rig- 

^ Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, 283 ff. 

* For a description of the difference in temperament between 
Emerson and Margaret Fuller, by Emerson himself, see Mem- 
oirs, I. 201 fif. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 55 

orism* like that of Emerson, which ordinarily she 
condemned In him. This characteristic of her 
nature, too, probably led her to utter the passage 
upon which Dr. H. C. Goddard lays so much, in 
fact entirely too much emphasis. ^ It Is also be- 
cause of this Inner contention that she sometimes 
fails to do Goethe and his principles justice, and 
here and there makes contradictory statements 
concerning her relation to him. That this struggle 
lasted at least until a few years before the end 
of her life, Is evident from her letters, her pre- 
face to the translation of Goethe's Conversations 
with Eckermann; and from the last one of her 
two articles on Goethe In the Dial. ^ 

Nowhere Is the evidence of this Inner strife 
clearer than in this last-named article, nor the 
victory of the Goethean spirit more supreme. We 
can only judge that In all other cases, like this, 
something similar took place, I. e., there was a 
momentary struggle. But if we study her doctrine 
of character-building, her relation to her friends, 
her acts — in short her whole life and development 
— we see that, consciously or unconsciously (prob- 
ably for the most part unconsciously) she was, 

^Studies in New England Transcendentalism, by H. C. God- 
dard, p. 137. 
' Dial, Vol. II, No. i, 1841. Life Without and Life Within,^,2% ff. 



56 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

as Emerson correctly says, a most faithful pupil 
and follower of Goethe. 

After true Puritan fashion she speaks at the 
beginning of the article in the Dial, just men- 
tioned, of Goethe's intellect "too much developed 
in proportion to the moral nature," "Naturally 
of a deep mind and a shallow heart," wanting in 
"the sweetness of piety," and "cold, setting him- 
self apart from his true peers, the real sovereigns 
of Weimar — Herder, Wieland and the others." ^ 
But almost immediately after her first statement 
she thrusts In a doubt to soften and tone it down, 
saying: "It is difficult to speak [thus of such men 
as Goethe] without seeming narrow, blind, and 
Impertinent. . . . For ... If you feel a want of 
a faculty in them, it is hard to say they have It not, 
lest, next moment, they puzzle you by giving you 
some indication of It." - And in a passage from a 
letter, written In 1836, she says the same thing of 
Goethe more directly: "Yet often, when sus- 
pecting that I have found a huge gap, the next 
turning it appears that it was but an airhole, and 
there is a brick all ready to stop It." ^ 

Only a few passages further in the article in the 

^^Life Without and Life Within, p. 23 ff. 
" Ibid, p. 24. 
^Memoirs, I. 167. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 57 

Dial, when speaking of Goethe's Tasso, she no 
longer feels what she has written at the beginning 
and praises highly the tenderness, the "depth and 
fullness" which Goethe has given to Tasso's char- 
acter, and his "entire abandonment to the highest 
nature." "But, you say," she continues, "there Is 
no likeness between Goethe and Tasso. Never 
believe It; such pictures are not painted from ob- 
servation merely. That deep coloring which fills 
them with light and life is given by dipping the 
brush in one's own life-blood." ^ This surely Is 
not In harmony with her accusation that Goethe 
was "cold" and of a "shallow heart," or too in- 
tellectual. Three pages further Margaret Fuller 
praises the "wise mind of the duchess," Amalla, 
for giving the first Impulse to Goethe's ''noble 
course'' at Weimar, contradicting exactly what 
she said of his course here at the beginning of the 
article. - 

A little further on her feeling for Goethe be- 
comes still stronger. "One Is ashamed," she 
writes, "when finding any fault with one like 
Goethe, who Is so great. It seems the only criti- 
cism should be to do all he omitted to do, and that 
none who cannot is entitled to say a word." ^ 

^Life Without and Life Within, p. 28. 

^Ibid., p. 31. 'Ibid., p. 45. 



58 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Just a few pages further, after defending most 
vigorously the Elective Affinities, against all the 
absurd and bitter criticism heaped upon it, and 
losing herself, heart and soul in the sweetness and 
purity of the character of Ottilia, she says, even 
before taking up such a character as Goethe's 
Iphigenie : ^'At this moment, remembering what 
I then [at the beginning of the article] felt, I am 
inclined to class all my negations just written on 
this paper as stuff, and look upon myself, for 
thinking them, with as much contempt as Mr. Car- 
lyle, or Mrs. Austin, or Mrs. Jameson might do, 
to say nothing of the German Goetheans." ^ 

At the end of the article after analyzing "Iphi- 
genie," she calls Goethe "the brightest star in 
a new constellation" and closes by appealing to 
her readers, in Goethe's behalf: "Let us enter 
into his higher tendency, thank him for such angels 
as Iphigenie, whose simple truth mocks at all his 
wise 'Beschrankungen', and hope the hour when, 
girt about with many such, he will confess, contrary 
to his opinion, given in his latest days, that it is 
well worth while to live seventy years, if only to 
find that they are nothing in the sight of God." " 

After reading this it would seem perfectly 

* Life Without and Life Within, p. 51. 
= Ibid., p. 60. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 59 

absurd to claim that Margaret Fuller at this 
period (1841) was no longer favorably inclined 
toward Goethe, or an enthusiastic admirer of him; 
or that his powerful influence was mo longer 
exerted upon her. One who had read nothing else 
of hers, might be tempted to believe she simply 
made the statements against the great poet, in the 
beginning of her article, statements expressing a 
feeling against Goethe so common in New Eng- 
land at the time, in order to tear them to pieces 
later on and prove the contrary. Especially strong 
is this temptation after reading her masterly de- 
fense of Goethe in her article just preceding this 
one, against Wolfgang Menzel, whose criticism 
attacking Goethe had been translated by Professor 
Felton of Harvard College. 

It is, however, true that Margaret Fuller did 
not slavishly follow and imitate Goethe. "Her 
rich and busy mind," in the words of Emerson, 
was never paralyzed in the presence of her great 
master, nor did she ever "reproduce undigested 
reading." She was too original for that, and her 
personality too strong. She did not cease think- 
ing on her own part nor did she give up in any 
way her intellectual independence. The most be- 
neficent influence that any great poet or thinker can 



6o MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

exercise upon us, Is not to cause us to follow vassal- 
like In his train, but to stimulate, to Inspire In us 
great and noble thoughts, to call out all the latent 
energies and powers of the soul, and to develop 
them to a greater degree of perfection and Inde- 
pendence. This Is chiefly what Goethe did for 
Margaret Fuller. 

Goethe had above all other poets the special 
faculty and power to free and call out most forci- 
bly the ego, the real "L" In fact nobody has ever 
been so powerful to develop the personality In his 
followers, or as he calls them, his ^'Gemelnde," as 
he. This Is clearly pointed out In an extract from 
the lectures of Rudolph Hlldebrand on Goethe's 
lyric poetry. ^ Theodor Crelzenach lays em- 
phasis upon this same power of the great German 
poet.^ Both of these distinguished critics of 
Goethe, especially the first mentioned, show how 
Goethe rediscovered that which Is the real human 
part In man, the mainspring of character and per- 
sonality, so long lost sight of and burled under- 
neath the heap of debris of mere Intellectual 
knowledge, which had accumulated for ages. He 

^Lectures of R. Hildebrand, published by Julius Goebel, 
Goethe Jahrbuch, Vol. XXII. 205 ff. 

^ Goethe als Befreier, by Theodor Creizenach. Goethe Jahr- 
bwh, Vol. XXII. 131 ff. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 6i 

laid stress once more upon the Inner life of man, 
the real motive forces In the soul, that go to make 
up character. This force, Goethe showed, does not 
consist in — nor Is it the result of — mere knowledge, 
but it Is the very essence of our personality: "das 
Unerkannteste und Unerkennbarste, und doch 
Gewisseste In uns," * which he, as a poet intends 
to bring out and liberate. It Is an appeal to the 
heart, to the whole Inner soul of man. Here is the 
whole secret : — Mind and heart, will and emotions 
must both be called out, reconciled, and go hand In 
hand. Character and a harmonious personality 
are the result of a proper education of all these 
conjointly. Goethe thus may justly call himself a 
liberator, and say, he has freed us "from the 
snares of pedants." ^ 

Edward Everett Hale, too, saw this mission of 
Goethe as a liberator of the soul from the tyranny 
of Intellectual knowledge, for he writes concern- 
ing J. F. Clarke, and his fellow-students In the 
Divinity School at just this time: "These young 
men could not read their Coleridge or their 
Goethe without emancipating themselves at once 
from the wooden philosophy of John Locke, over 

*"The least known and least knowable, and yet that within 
us of which we are the most certain." 
^ Goethe's Werke. Hempel edition, III. 267. 



62 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

which they had been made to hammer as under- 
graduates." ^ It is especially in his lyric poetry 
that Goethe succeeds so well in liberating our Ego 
— in awakening our innermost feelings and devel- 
oping the emotional side of character to balance 
the intellectual. Goethe fulfills this, his mission 
as a poet, as he calls it in his poem Fermachtniss, 
by leading the way in which we, as emotional be- 
ings, are to follow. 

"Denn edlen Seelen vorzufuhlen 
1st wiinschenswertester Beruf."*^ 

Few persons felt his liberating influence more 
deeply than did Margaret Fuller. How ripe and 
ready she really was for the full force and effect 
of such an appeal, is seen from her letter quoted 
in the last pages of the preceding chapter of this 
present treatise. How remarkably Goethe's in- 
fluence acted upon Margaret Fuller, how com- 
pletely carried away she now was with him, and 
how, docile as a child, she filled her mind and heart 

^ Autobiography t Diary, and Correspondence of James Free- 
man Clarke, p. 89 f. 

* "For to lead noble souls in their feeling 

[literally, to feel for them beforehand, so that they might 
follow] 

Is the most desirable of callings." 

* Goethe's Werke, Hempel edition, III. 192. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 63 

with some part of the ''Great Sage's'' teaching 
every day, the following passages show most con- 
clusively. She was practically re-educated, mind 
and soul. Her feelings and inner life were 
awakened and called out; and finally she emerged 
from these years of the study of "Our Master 
Goethe," as she confidently calls him,' an altered 
being and a strong, fully developed personality. 
She writes in 1832 : 

"It seems to me as if the mind of Goethe had 
embraced the universe. I have felt this lately, in 
reading his lyric poems. I am enchanted while 
I read. He comprehends every feeling I have 
ever had so perfectly, expresses it so beautifully; 
but when I shut the book, it seems as if I had lost 
my personal identity; all my feelings linked with 
such an immense variety that belong to beings I 
had thought so different. What can I bring? 
There is no answer in my mind, except 'It is so,' or 
'It will be so,' or 'No doubt such and such feel so.' 
Yet, while my judgement becomes daily more 
tolerant toward others, the same attracting and 
repelling work is going on in my feelings. But I 
persevere in reading the great sage, some part of 
every day, hoping the time will come, when I shall 

^Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 135. 



64 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

not feel so overwhelmed, and leave off this habit 
of wishing to grasp the whole, and be contented to 
learn a little every day, as becomes a pupil." ^ 

In another passage, written the following year, 
the same longing for a further Inner development, 
as "Nature intended," is clearly expressed. She 
would like to go to Goethe In her perplexity and 
accept him both as a wise friend and a guide. 

'*How often I have thought, if I could see 
Goethe, and tell him my state of mind, he would 
support and guide me ! He would be able to un- 
derstand; he would show me how to rule circum- 
stances, instead of being ruled by them; and, 
above all, he would not have been so sure that all 
would be for the best, without our making an ef- 
fort to act out the oracles; he would have wished 
to see me what Nature intended." ^ 

"I constantly think of Goethe," she writes 
again, "while I see life overgrowing thought as 
soon as it has expressed it. He is the light of the 
age, vivid. I learn all the other men from him, 
him from them." ^ 

In the following passage, written in 1833, In an 
hour of sadness while she is watching beside the 

^Memoirs, I. 119. 
' Ibid., I. 122. 
'Margaret Fuller MSS. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 65 

sick-bed, Goethe is again the guide and solace for 

her soul. "When not with , in whose room I 

sit, sewing, and waiting upon him, or reading 
aloud a great part of the day, I solace my soul 
with Goethe, and follow his guidance into realms 
of the 'Wahren, Guten, and Schonen'." ^* 

In another letter Margaret Fuller speaks of the 
inspiration she received from Goethe, the fresh 
impulse for action and for exerting her person- 
ality, in short "to live as he did." 

"Three or four afternoons I have passed very 
happily at my beloved haunt in the wood, reading 
Goethe's 'second Residence in Rome'. Your pen- 
cil marks show that you have been before me. 
I shut the book each time with an earnest desire 
to live as he did — always to have some engrossing 
object of pursuit. I sympathize deeply with a 
mind in that state. While mine is being used up 
by ounces, I wish pailfuls might be poured into it. 
I am dejected and uneasy when I see no results 
from my daily existence, but I am suffocated and 
lost when I have not the bright feeling of progres- 
sion." 2 

Writing of the remaining works of Goethe 

^Memoirs, I. 146. 

*The True, Good, and Beautiful. 

* Memoirs, I. 121 f. 



66 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

which she had not yet read, but was now reading,* 
she says : "I have with me those works of Goethe 
which I have not yet read, and am now engaged 
upon 'Kunst und Altertum,' und 'Campagne 
In Frankrelch.' I still prefer reading Goethe 
to anyone else, and as I proceed find more 
and more to learn. "^ Three years later, though 
she had lost a little of her first ardor for Goethe, 
and had not yet entirely succeeded In sounding the 
depth of his philosophy of life, she is still willing 
to follow his lead. "I do not know our Goethe 
yet," she writes, "I have changed my opinion 
about his religious views many times;" but she is 
still ready "to try his philosophy, and, if needs 
must play the Eclectic." - On her birthday, 1836, 
when reading Goethe's Lehensregeln, she con- 
cludes, "I will endeavor to profit by the instruction 
of the great philosopher, who teaches, I think, 
what Christ did, to use without overvaluing the 
world." ^ 

Her enthusiasm went even further, so far in 
fact, that she earnestly desired her friends to 

* She read probably in all fifty-five volumes of Goethe, the 
number Emerson had in his library, and of which she made 
use at this time, 

^ Margaret Fuller MSS. in Boston Public Library ; also 
Memoirs, I. 147. 

^Memoirs, I. 167. 

'Ibid.. 161. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 67 

share it with her. "It is my earnest wish," she 
writes, "to interpret the German authors of whom 
I am most fond to such Americans as are ready 
to receive. ... I hope a periodical may arise, by 
and by, which may think me worthy to furnish a 
series of articles on German literature, giving 
room enough and perfect freedom to say what I 
please." ^ 

Her opinions of Goethe's doctrines are so well 
grounded five years after she had begun to study 
him that she writes in 1837, when seeking ma- 
terial for her "Life of Goethe : " "Of course, my 
impression of Goethe's works cannot be influenced 
by information I get about his life." ^ He is, and 
remains for her what she herself has named him: 
"High priest of truth, and best lover of man."^ 
In the Preface to her translation of Eckermann's 
Conversations with Goethe she recognizes even 
a closer union and affectionately calls him ^^My 
parent.^' * 

The following passage, written probably some 
years later, shows how clearly she saw the great 
development that had taken place in her character 

^Memoirs, I. i68. 
^ Ibid., 129. 

^Reminiscences of Edna Doiv Cheney, p. 208. 
* Translator's Preface to Eckermann's Conversations ivitk 
Goethe, p. xix. 



68 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

and personality, as a result of her studies and in- 
ner experiences. "I mourned," she writes, "that 
I never should have a thorough experience of 
life, never know the full riches of my being; I 
was proud that I was to test myself in the sternest 
way, that I was always to return to myself, to be 
my own priest, pupil, parent, child, husband, and 
wife. All this I did not understand as I do now; 
but this destiny of the thinker, and (shall I dare 
say it?) of the poetic priestess, .... lay yet 
enfolded in my mind." ^ 

That this growth of her inner life under the 
influence of Goethe did not cease after a few 
years, but continued uninterruptedly is clear. As 
late as her editorship of the Dial (1840-42) she 
writes: "He [Goethe] obliges us to live and 
grow, that we may walk by his side; vainly we 
strive to leave him behind in some niche of the hall 
of our ancestors; a few steps onward and we 
find him again, of yet serener eye and more tower- 
ing mien than on his other pedestal." ^ 

From the evidence in the foregoing passages it 
is perfectly clear, as Emerson writes, that "No- 
where did Goethe find a braver, more intelligent, 



^ Memoirs, I. 99. 

-Life Without and Life Within, p. 14. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HER INNER LIFE 69 

or more sympathetic reader," ' and that "the effect 
on Margaret was complete." This influence, too, 
was permanent, for Emerson writes that by the 
time he learned to know her well In 1836, the 
main problems of human life had been scanned, 
interrogated, and settled by her.- One of her 
greatest desires had been a development accord- 
ing to nature, a rounding out of her whole being. 
Here In her study of Goethe, as we saw, she found 
"her moods met," the suggestions she needed, and 
the opportunities she sought. A new light fell 
upon her soul. The result was as If new blood 
had rushed through her veins. Her personality 
developed, her character rounded out, and her 
mind broadened. The "infinite curiosity to know 
individuals" was satisfied, and as J. F. Clarke 
writes, she studied character, and acquired "the 
power of exerting profoundest influence on in- 
dividual souls." ^ She was filled with a new im- 
pulse for action and a longing desire to exert her 
personality; to carry into execution her new ideals 
and plans of life. "It will be long," she writes 
when studying Goethe and meditating a work on 
his life, "before I can give a distinct, and at the 
same time concise account of my present state. I 

^Memoirs, 1. 243. 'Ibid., I. 291. ^Ibid., 65 f. 



70 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

believe it is a great era. I am thinking now — 
really thinking, I believe; certainly it seems as if 
I had never done so before. If it does not kill me, 
something will come of it, never was my mind so 
active; and the subjects are God, the universe, im- 
mortality." ^ 

The stamp and effect of her Goethe study were 
there to stay. Though she may later have lost a 
little of her first enthusiasm for the great author, 
she nevertheless, unconscious of his great influence, 
continued to develop harmoniously all her higher 
powers, in exactly the same manner and in the 
same direction in which her great second school- 
master had taught her and put her under way. 
Her whole Hfe in America, and later in Italy, was 
in conformity to the great principles which she 
had learned from Goethe. 



^Memoirs, I. 128. 



Chapter III 

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 

Nowhere was the Influence of the study of 
/Goethe upon Margaret Fuller greater than upon 
her religious life and doctrines. One of her great 
objects In life, according to her own statement, 
was to grow. "This aim was distinctly appre- 
hended and steadily pursued by her from first to 
last," writes James Freeman Clarke. "The good 
and the evil which flow from this great Idea of 
self-development she fully realized. This aim 
of life, originally self-chosen, was made much 
more clear to her mind by the study of Goethe,^ 
the great master of this school, In whose un- 
equalled eloquence this doctrine acquires an almost 
irresistible beauty and charm." "It was a high, 
noble one, this aim of self-culture," continues 
Mr. Clarke, "wholly religious, almost Christian. 
It gave dignity to her whole career, and made it 

^ How nearly this aim in her life coincides with the Goethean 
doctrine of the harmonious development of the personality may 
be further seen when we remember that exactly the same thing, 
which is said of her here, was also said of Goethe himself. 

71 



72 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

heroic. ... If she ever was ambitious of knowl- 
edge and talent, as a means of excelling others, 
and gaming fame, position, admiration, — this 
vanity had passed before I knew her, and was 
replaced by the profound desire for a full devel- 
opment of her whole nature, by means of a full 
experience of llfe.'^ ^ Not merely for her own 
good was this development to be; It was also to 
enable her better to carry out her Ideals and un- 
dertakings in life, which were Indeed noble and 
public-spirited enough. "She was religious," 
writes Mrs. Howe, one of Margaret Fuller's in- 
timate friends and admirers, "in her recognition 
I of the divine element in human experience, and 
'Christian in her elevation above the sordid inter- 
ests of life, In her devotion to the highest 
standards of duty and of destiny." - 

Margaret Fuller is usually associated — es- 
pecially by later writers — with the Transcendental 
Movement in New England and, what Is stranger, 
is classed as one of the leaders.^ It seems per- 
fectly evident, however, both from her own 

^Memoirs, I. 132 f. 

^ Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 30. 

^ Dr. H. C. Goddard in his work, Studies in Ne<w Englandl 
Transcendentalism (p. 8), names the leaders in this movement, 
among whom he places her, "because," as he writes, "common 
consent seems to have selected them [as leaders]." 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 73 

statements, and the differences between the nature 
of the movement and her philosophical and reli- 
gious belief, that she was not a Transcendentallst 
at all, much less a leader In the movement. This 
fact seems to have been clear to her from the very 
start. As early as 1835, In the Infancy of the 
movement, she writes concerning the publication 
of the new magazine then on foot, and which 
later appeared as the Dial: — 

"I shall feel myself honored if I am deemed 
worthy of lending a hand, albeit I fear I am 
merely ^Germanico/ and not 'transcendentaP." ' 

The error of placing her among the Tran- 
scendentallsts seems to have been due chiefly to 
the mere fact that she happened to be associated, 
more or less closely, with the leaders of this move- 
ment, as well as to the broad, elastic, and often 
very vague manner In which the term "transcen- 
dental" was used. Mr. T. W. HIgginson, writing, 
of course, from a purely literary standpoint, goes 
very little further in his definition of the term 
than, that "the Transcendental movement 
amounted essentially to this : that about the year 
1836 a number of young people In America made 
the discovery that, In whatever quarter of the 

^ Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 141. 



74 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

globe they happened to be, It was possible for 
them to take a look at the stars for themselves," 
that a few "fresh thinkers," "apostles of the 
ideal," appeared In good earnest and speculated 
In philosophy and theology, that they encouraged 
originality and looked immediately around them 
for their stimulus, scenery, etc.. In the literary 
works they produced, and that they had a power- 
ful Influence for good on American literature, 
generally/ Of course, with a definition of Tran- 
scendentalism so comprehensive as that, Margaret 
Fuller may easily be classed as a Transcendentalist ; 
but other contemporary writers whom nobody con- 
nects with the Transcendental movement, among 
them, Edgar Allan Poe, and Washington Irving, 
also found their stimulus and scenery immediately 
about them, and seem to have been tolerably free 
from Imitation, and quite original In their 
thoughts. The fact Is that the term "Transcen- 
dental Movement" Is more restricted in Its mean- 
ing than the definition quoted above. It was a 
particular and tolerably well-defined philosophical 
and religious doctrine. 

The term "transcendental," as applied to phi- 

^ Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, 133 ff. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 75 

losophy, originated, of course, with Kant. Emer- 
son says in the third volume of the Dial; 

"What is popularly called transcendentalism 
among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in 
1842. . , . The Idealism of the present day ac- 
quired the name of Transcendental, from the use 
of that term by Immanuel Kant, of Konigsberg, 
who replied to the skeptical philosophy of Locke, 
which insisted that there was nothing in the intel- 
lect which was not previously in the experience 
of the senses, by showing that there was a very 
important class of ideas or imperative forms, 
which did not come by experience, but through 
which experience was acquired; that these were 
intuitions of the mind itself; and he denominated 
them Transcendental forms. The extraordinary 
profoundness and precision of that man's thinking 
have given vogue to his nomenclature, in Europe 
and America, to that extent that whatever belongs 
to the class of intuitive thought is popularly called 
at the present day Transcendental." ^ 

Kant's use of the term, as Dr. H. C. Goddard 
has also pointed out, was more technical and re- 
stricted than that usually applied to it by the 
Transcendentalists themselves. In the introduc- 

^ Dial, III. 297 ff. Emerson's Works, Vol. I. 311 ff. 



76 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

tion to the Critique of Pure Reason Kant clearly 
states that In Transcendental philosophy no con- 
cepts are to be admitted which contain anything 
empirical, and that the a priori knowledge must 
be perfectly pure. "Therefore, although the high- 
est principles of morality and their fundamental 
concepts are a priori knowledge, they do not be- 
long to transcendental philosophy, because the 
concepts of pleasure and pain, desire, inclination, 
free-will, etc., which are all of empirical origin 
must here be presupposed. Transcendental phi- 
losophy is the wisdom of pure speculative reason. 
Everything practical, so far as it contains motives, 
has reference to sentiments, and these belong to 
empirical sources of knowledge."^ 

With the New Englander who embraced this 
originally purely philosophical doctrine, it did not 
long remain so. With him the vital question was, 
what relation did this philosophy bear to religion; 
what was its significance to the moral world, to 
life itself? An article in the Dial by John A. 
Saxton entitled "Prophecy — Transcendentalism — 
Progress," fitly illustrates how the special signifi- 
cance that this doctrine bears to the idea of God, 
virtue, and the immortal soul was singled out. 

^ Kant, Introd. to Critique of Pure Reason. Transl. by F. Max 
Miiller. Vol. 11. 12 f. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 77 

"This name [Transcendentalism] as well as 
that of Critical Philosophy, was given by Kant, a 
German philosopher, who first decisively refuted 
the theory of sensation, and gave a scientific dem- 
onstration of the reality and authority of the 
spontaneous reason. . . . Kant, instead of at- 
tempting to prove, which he considered vain, the 
existence of God, virtue, and immortal soul, by 
inference drawn, as the conclusion of all philoso- 
phy, from the world of sense, found these things 
written, as the beginning of all philosophy, in 
obscured, but ineffaceable characters, within our 
inmost being, and themselves first affording any 
certainty and clear meaning to that very world 
of sense, by which we endeavor to demonstrate 
them. God is, nay alone is; for we cannot say 
with like emphasis that anything else is. This 
is the absolute, the primitively true, which the phi- 
losopher seeks." ^ 

Soon other elements were added, some philo- 
sophical, some purely literary; then all these ele- 
ments combined were grafted on to the stock of 
the Unitarian church. Perhaps as good and as 
concise a definition of New England Transcen- 
dentalism in its full development and complexity 

^Dial, II. 90 f. 



78 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

as can be found Is given by a Transcendentalist 
himself, W. H. Channing: 

"Transcendentalism was an assertion of the 
inalienable integrity of man, of the immanence of 
Divinity in instinct. In part, It was a reaction 
against Puritan Orthodoxy; in part, an effect of 
renewed study of the ancients, of Oriental Pan- 
theists, of Plato and the Alexandrians, of Plu- 
tarch's Morals, Seneca and Epictetus; in part, the 
natural product of the culture of the place and 
time. On the somewhat stunted stock of Unitari- 
anlsm, — whose characteristic dogma was trust 
in Individual reason as correlative to Supreme 
Wisdom, — had been grafted German Idealism, as 
taught by the masters of most various schools, 
by Kant and Jacobi, Fichte and Novalis, Schelling 
and Hegel, Schlelermacher and De Wette, by 
Madame de Stael, Cousin, Coleridge, Carlyle; 
and the result was a vague yet exalting conception 
of the godlike nature of the human spirit. . . . 
The rise of this enthusiasm was as mysterious as 
that of any form of revival; and only they who 
were of the faith could comprehend how bright 
was this morning-time of a new hope ! . . . Tran- 
scendentalism, as viewed by Its disciples, was a 
pilgrimage from the Idolatrous world of creeds 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 79 

and rituals to the temple of the Living God in 
the soul. It was a putting to silence of tradition 
and formulas that the Sacred Oracle might be 
heard through intuitions of the single-eyed and 
pure-hearted. Amidst materialists, zealots, and 
skeptics, the Transcendentalist believed in per- 
petual Inspiration, the miraculous power of will, 
and a birth-right to universal good." ^ It was 
therefore, as Mrs. Howe said, "A new church, 
with the joy and pain of a new evangel In its 
midst." - 

Transcendentalism, however, was like Puritan- 
ism and Unltarianism before It, in that It was 
purely intellectual, religious and moral, with, of 
course, the great difference that It was Infinitely 
more liberal and free from pure church dogmatism 
than the first, and on a much loftier plane than 
either, — since it contained the element of idealism 
taken over chiefly from the German. Neverthe- 
less, there was in Transcendentalism an element of 
moral rigorism and hidden asceticism, the legacy 
of Puritanism, which looked with disdain, or at 
least with distrust, upon the sensual nature of 
man. It was this same element In Kant's phi- 
losophy which so strongly appealed to the Puritan 

^ Memoirs, II. 12 f. " Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 90. 



8o MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Transcendentalists. Despite their declamations 
about art and poetry, It never occurred to them 
that true art and true poetry pre-suppose an Ideal 
of man which presents the harmonious unity of 
both the sensual and the spiritual side of human 
nature. We must consider It one of the greatest 
achievements of Schiller, that, feeling the defect In 
Kant's attitude and doctrine, he presented In 
his great aesthetic essays a conception of beauty, 
and, with it, a new ideal of man far superior to 
that of Kant, an Ideal the embodiment of which 
he recognized In the genius and personality of 
Goethe. 

The difference between the Transcendental 
standpoint and the aesthetic view, between mere 
philosophic speculation and a harmoniously devel- 
oped, healthy humanity, such as Margaret Fuller 
believed In, cannot be expressed better than by 
the following extract from one of Schiller's letters 
to Goethe (July 9, 1796) : 

"Innerhalb der aesthetlschen Geistesstlmmung 
regt sich kein Bediirfnlss nach jenen Trostgriin- 
den, die aus der Spekulatlon geschopft werden 
miissen; sle hat Selbststiindigkelt, Unendlichkeit 
In sich; nur wenn sich das Sinnliche und das 
Moralische im Menschen feindlich entgegenstre- 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 8i 

ben, muss bei der relnen Vernunft Hiilfe gesucht 
werden. Die gesunde und schone Natur braucht, 
wie Sie selbst sagen,keine Moral, keinNaturrecht, 
keine politische Metaphyslk: Sie batten ebensogut 
auch hinzusetzen konnen, sie braucht keine Gott- 
helt . . . um sich zu stiitzen und zu halten."*^ 

There can be no doubt that, owing to traditions 
inherited from the Puritans the views expressed 
In this passage remained a closed chapter to the 
Transcendentallsts. They never had, nor could 
they have, a true appreciation of aesthetic beauty 
in the Goethe-Schiller sense. "Religion opens 
her arms to him on whom beauty Is lost," says 
Schiller. Hence the fact that the Transcendental 
movement, important as It was In the Intellectual 
life of America, left no production of great poetic 
merit. Hence, also, a certain lack of apprecia- 
tion for the poetic genius of Goethe In men like 
Emerson, who with this mistaken conception of 
spirituality, scented In Goethe the pagan. Clearly 

*Within the aesthetic temperament there is no need for those 
consolations which must be founded upon speculative reasoning. 
It is independent, eternal in itself. Only when the sensual and 
the moral natures in man are at enmity with each other must 
help be sought in pure reason. Nature in her health and purity, 
needs, as you say, no moral, no nature laws, no politic meta- 
physics. You might just as well have added, it needs no divinity 
... to lean on or hold to. 

* Goethe-Schiller Correspondence, Schiller to Goethe, July 9, 
1796. 



82 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

as he saw what Goethe was to the world of litera- 
ture and thought, his admiration for him was, in 
his own words, a "qualified" one.^ 

Margaret Fuller, on the other hand, had 
imbibed too deeply from the rejuvenating fountain 
of Goethe's poetry and thought, to be enticed into 
the caves of Transcendental mysticism, or upon 
the frosty heights of an imagined spirituality. It 
was on this fundamental Goethean principle that 
she differed from all the Transcendentalists. 

It Is true that both systems aim at a high degree 
of perfection in human character, but the means 
by which they hope to arrive at the end they seek, 
as well as the character of their final aim, are 
entirely different. Transcendentalism seeks to 
bring man to the desired state by elevating his 
thoughts Into a higher realm, intellectually and 
religiously, In short Into the atmosphere of God 
himself, through the divine nature of his own 
spirit. The Transcendentallst, writes W. H. 
Channing, "believed in perpetual inspiration. . . . 
He sought to hold communion face to face with the 
unnameable Spirit of his spirit."^ The other, 
somewhat less pretentious, sought the highest per- 

* Carlyle-Emerson Correspondence, Vol. I. 29 f. Emerson's 
Works, Vol. IV. notes, p. 371. See Chapter VI. 200 f. 
'Memoirs, II. 13. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 83 

fectlon of character In the development of the 
truly human, through experience in life, by a full 
and wise exercise of the natural given powers, and 
by trusting, at first hand, in the human instincts 
as a divine guide for life. "There is an only 
guide," says Margaret Fuller, "the voice in the 
Heart. . . . Thou canst not stray from nature, 
nor be so perverted, but she will make thee true 
again;" ^ or as Goethe, her teacher, expresses the 
same doctrine : 

"1st nicht Kern der Natur 
Menschen im Herzen?"* 

Transcendentalism is by nature deeply Chris- 
tian in the traditional sense. According to its 
teaching, and that of the churches related to it, 
the chief aim of man on earth should be to live 
a religious life. In the Goethean sense, which 
Margaret Fuller represented, purity and harmony 
of character is the chief aim. "At present, my 
soul is intent on this life," she writes, "and I think 
of religion as Its rule, and, in my opinion, this 
is the natural and proper course from youth to 
agel"^ Or as Goethe expresses himself : "From- 

^ Memoirs, I. 211. 

* "Is not the germ of nature 

In the heart of man?" 
^Memoirs, I. 136. 



84 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

migkeit ist kein Zweck, sondern ein Mittel, um 
durch die reinste Gemiitsruhe zur hochsten Kultur 
zu gelangen." *^ The aim is to build character 
and to fit ourselves to live properly on this sphere, 
to develop our being, both the mortal and the im- 
mortal part, to its highest possible expression and 
perfection, and to be a boon to our fellow beings; 
and then, all this done, without any anxiety on 
our part, we may trust Providence to take care of 
our future. 

"Halte dich Im Stillen rein, 
Und lass es um dich wettern; 
Je mehr du fiihlst ein Mensch zu sein 
Desto ahnlicher bist du den Gottern/'** 

To develop the human part of ourselves into the 
image of God, or until we, ourselves, are like the 
gods, this is the ultimate aim. That Goethe recog- 
nized his doctrine to be deeply religious is clear 
from the lines in his Zahmen Xenien, just quoted. 
The human instincts, too, are looked upon as di- 

* ''Piety Is not an end but a means, by which to attain, 
through the purest tranquillity of mind, the highest culture." 
^ Spriiche in Prosa, No. 41. 
** "Keep thyself pure in quiet, 

And let it storm about thee; 

The more a human (being) thou feele^st thyself to be, 

The more thou art like the gods." 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 85 

vine, as they also are in the Transcendental 
doctrine, with this difference, however: that in 
the Goethean doctrine they are that which the 
individual must ultimately turn to for the highest 
laws of his inner being. In the other this is not 
altogether the case. In the highest degree of 
perfection, according to Goethe, the individual 
recognizes the Divine in human nature itself. 
Since God, as Goethe believed with his whole soul, 
dwells in Nature, he must also dwell in the heart 
of man; for is not man a part of nature, yea, the 
highest expression of Nature? "Im Innern ist 
ein Universum auch," *^ he says; and Margaret 
Fuller prays: "O for the safe and natural way 
of Intuition!" ''O for a more calm, more pervad- 
ing faith in the divinity of my own nature !" ^ It 
seems that James Freeman Clarke, who was him- 
self deeply influenced by Goethe, had the distinc- 
tion between these two systems clearly in mind 
when he wrote of Margaret Fuller's aim of self- 
culture : "Wholly religious, and almost Christian, I 
said, was this aim. ... It was almost Christian In 
its superiority to all low, worldly, vulgar thoughts 

*"In the inner (soul) there is also a universe." 
^ Goethe's Gedichte, Hempel ed. II. 368. ' 

2 Memoirs, I. 171, 176. 



86 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

and cares; In Its recognition of a high standard of 
duty, and a great destiny for man.'* ^ 

A letter, written probably soon after Margaret 
Fuller's acquaintance with Goethe, sheds still 
more light on her belief and philosophy of life, 
showing how she rejected all systems of positive 
religion and stuck to her idea of self-development 
through experience in life, "Loving or feeble na- 
tures need a positive religion, a visible refuge, a 
protection, as much in the passionate season of 
youth as In those stages nearer to the grave. But 
mine Is not such. . . . Tangible promises ! Well- 
defined hopes ! are things of which I do not now, 
feel the need." ^ "I cannot endure," she says in 
another passage, "to be one of those shallow be- 
ings who can never get beyond the primer of 
experience, — who are ever saying, — 

'Ich habe geglaubt, nun glaub' ich erst recht, 
Und geht es auch wunderlich, geht es auch schlecht, 
Ich bleibe im glaubfgen Orden.' "** 

"When disappointed, I do not ask or wish conso- 

^MemoirSy I. 133. 

Mbid., I. 135. 

'Ibid., p. 82.^ 

* "I have believed, nonv I believe all the more, 

And even if things go strangely, even if they go w^rong, 
I will remain in the ranks of the believing." 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 87 

lation, — I wish to know and feel my pain, to 
Investigate Its nature and Its source; I will not 
have my thoughts diverted, or my feelings 
soothed."' 

How near this Is to what Goethe says In Faust 
(1. 1768 ff.) may be seen from the following 
passage: 

"Mein Busen, der vom Wissensdrang geheilt 1st, 
Soli keinen Schmerzen kiinftig sich verschliessen, 
Und was der ganzen Menschheit zugeteilt ist, 
Will ich In meinem innern Selbst genlessen, 
Mit meinem Geist das Hochst' und Tiefste greifen, 
Ihr Wohl und Weh auf meinen Busen haufen, 
Und so mein eigen Selbst zu ihrem Selbst erweitern, 
Und wie sie selbst, am End' auch ich zerscheltern."* 

Again, the following passage shows how thor- 
oughly Goethean her doctrine really was: — "I do 
not see how It Is possible to go further beyond 
the results of a limited human experience than 
those do who pretend to settle the origin and 

^Memoirs, I. 135. 

* "My bosom, of its thirst for knowledge sated^ 

Shall not, henceforth, from any pang be wrested, 

And all of life for all mankind created 

Shall be within mine inmost being tested: 

The highest, lowest forms my soul shall borrow, 

Shall heap upon Itself their bliss and sorrow. 

And thus, my own sole self to all their selves expanded, 

I too, at last, shall with them all be stranded!" 

— Bayard Taylor's Translation. 



88 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

nature of sin, the final destiny of souls, and the 
whole plan of the Causal Spirit with regard to 
them. I think those who take [this] view have 
not examined themselves, and do not know the 
ground on which they stand." 

"I acknowledge no limit, set up by man's 
opinion, as to the capacity of man. 'Care is 
taken,' I see it, 'that the trees grow not up into 
heaven' ; but, to me it seems the more vigorously 
they aspire, the better. Only let it be a vigorous, 
not a partial or sickly aspiration. Let not the 
tree forget its rootJ^ "I would beat with the 
living heart of the world and understand all the 
moods," she continues in exact accordance with 
the spirit of Faust and Wilhelm Meister, "even 
the fancies and fantasies, of nature. I dare to 
trust to the Interpreting spirit to bring me out all 
right at last, — establish truth through error. 
Whether this be the best way is of no consequence, 
if It be the one Individual character points 
out. • . . 

I the truth can only know, 
Tested by life's most fiery glow. 

. . . Let me stand in my age with all Its waters 
flowing around me. If they sometimes subdue, 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 89 

they must finally upbear me, for I seek the uni- 
versal, — and that must be the best. 

"The Spirit, no doubt, leads In every movement 
of my time : If I seek the How, I shall find It, as 
well as If I busied myself more with the fVhy. 
Whatever Is, Is right. If only men are steadily 
bent to make It so, by comprehending and fulfilling 
Its design." ^ 

A passage from Margaret Fuller's Credo of 
1842 shows still further how much her religious 
belief really differed from that of her friends, — the 
Transcendentallsts, as well as those of the older 
faiths, — and how clear this difference was to her. 

It Is true that she believed the Gospel account 
of Christ, and that all happened just as It Is re- 
corded; yet to her the chief significance of such 
a life as Christ's lay In the fact that It presented 
to her an Illustration of the Ideal truth. This 
much was enough for her, and seemed to satisfy 
her completely." In her Credo she calls Christ 
''Redeemer," "Atoner," "Lamb of God," and 
"peculiarly a Messenger and Son of God;" yet 
she thoroughly believes with Goethe* that all 

^ At Home and Abroad, p. 72 ff. 

"See Margaret Fuller's Credo; Appendix, p. 253. 

* "It is right that forms of religion should not be bestowed 
directly by God himself, but as the ivork of eminent men" — 
Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe, Feb. 28, 1830. 



90 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

great geniuses are Inspired, and are, In this way, 
also sons of God, In that they, too, present us 
with higher ideals of life and beauty, whether 
moral, mental, or physical. She believes that man 
In his highest perfection will not conform to the 
ideal or type presented by any one of the great. 
Inspired geniuses, but that he will embody what 
is highest and best in all of them, in short, that 
he "will live out all the symbolical forms of 
human life with the calm beauty and physical ful- 
ness of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness 
of a Moses, with the holy love and purity of 
Jesus.'' ^ ''You see," she writes in commenting 
on this part of her creed, "how wide the gulf 
that separates me from the Christian Church." 

Closely related to this idea of the genius Is 
Margaret Fuller's conception of man's mission 
as a creator. In the Credo, and In her "Conver- 
sations," she devoted much thought to the ques- 
tion: What is life? and what relation do God 
and man bear to the creation and development 
of life forms? In giving a definition of life at 
one of the "Conversations," one of her reporters 
writes: "She began with God as spirit. Life, so 
full as to create and love eternally, yet capable 

^See Appendix, p. 253 f,, 256. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 91 

of pause. Love and creativeness are dynamic 
forces, out of which we individually, as creatures, 
go forth bearing his image, that is, having within 
our being the same dynamic forces, by which we 
also add constantly to the total sum of existence, 
and shaking off Ignorance, and its effects, and by 
becoming more ourselves, I. e., more divine; [or 
as Goethe puts it: "Desto ahnlicher bist du den 
Gottern,"] destroying sin In Its principle, we at- 
tain to absolute freedom, we return to God, con- 
scious like himself, and, as his friends, giving as 
well as receiving felicity forevermore. In short 
we become gods and able to give the life which 
we now feel ourselves able only to receive."^ 

There is no question that Margaret Fuller, in 
placing such vital emphasis upon life and activity, 
was here deeply Influenced by Goethe, In whose 
thinking and conduct this conception of life was 
one of the fundamental principles. 

''The highest attribute that we have received 
from God and nature," says Goethe, " Is life, the 
rotating movement of the monad about Itself, 
which knows neither rust nor rest. The Impulse to 
preserve and nourish life is born Indestructibly Into 

^Memoirs, I. 346 f. 



92 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

every one; the characteristic feature of the same 
remains, however, a secret to us and others.'* 
"The second gift from the beings operating from 
above," Goethe continues, "is the experienced in 
life, the becoming conscious, the taking part of the 
living, active monad in the environments of the 
outer world, by which it first becomes conscious of 
itself as an inner infinite and externally finite 
being." ' 

The close relation between these thoughts and 
those expressed by Margaret Fuller in the extract 
quoted from her "Conversations" is self-evident. 
The attainment of this absolute inner freedom, of 
which she speaks here, Goethe claimed as one 
of his great achievements. "Whoever, has 
learned to understand them [Goethe's writings] 
and my being, at all," he said to Chancellor von 
Miiller toward the end of his life, "will have to 
confess that he has gained a certain inner free- 
dom." The same claim as a liberator he repeats 
in the verses: 

"Ihr konnt mir immer ungescheut, 
Wie Bliichern, Denkmal setzen; 

^ Spriiche in Prosa, (1028), (1029). 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 93 

Von Franzen hat er euch befreit, 
Ich von Philisternetzen."* 

In saying "We become gods, and able to give 
the life which we now feel ourselves able only to 
receive, — " i. e., we become creators — , Margaret 
Fuller expresses the same idea that Goethe does 
in his poem, Wiederfinden, in the lines: 

"Allah braucht nicht mehr zu schaffen, 
Wir erschaffen seine Welt."** 

Also in the poem E'lns und A lies occur these lines : 

"Dann mit dem Weltgeist selbst zu ringen 
Wird unserer Krafte Hochberuf."*** 

Margaret Fuller's deep interest in Eckermann's 
Conversations with Goethe, which she translated 
and in which she found a considerable part of the 
ideas expressed in her Credo, was most probably 
due to the fact that it contained so many of 

* "You may always, without fear, erect to me 
As to Bliicher, monuments ; 
He has freed you from the French, 
I, from the snares of pedants." 
*■* "Allah needs to work no longer, 

We create his world." 
*** "For to vie with the world-spirit itself, 

Becomes the high calling of our powers." 



94 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Goethe^s religious views. In this work Goethe 
uses many expressions concerning man^s mission 
as a creator, similar to those of Margaret Fuller. 
Goethe's Das Gottliche and Prometheus, both of 
which Margaret Fuller translated, also express 
the same ideas and appealed to her strongly.^ 
That she was aroused by the latter poem to show 
the same Titanic, Promethean feelings that Goethe 
manifested in his youth, is shown by the following 
passage from one of her letters, quoted by 
Emerson. Sending her translation of Goethe's 
Prometheus to a friend she writes: — "Which of 
us has not felt the questionings expressed in this 
bold fragment? Does it not seem, were we gods 
or could steal their fire, we could make men not 
only happier, but free, glorious?"^ No Ameri- 
can critic comes as near as she here does to a 
full understanding of the secret of Goethe's 
"Storm and Stress period," and the true mission 
of his work. The sober Emerson, saw, of course 
in such expressions of hers only the presence of 
"a rather mountainous ME." ^ 

From a thorough study of Margaret Fuller's 
Credo, as a whole, we see even a closer relation 

* See Chapter on Interpretation of Goethe, pp. 167, 237. 
^Memoirs, I. 235. 
'Ibid., p. 236. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 95 

between her conception of God, man, and the 
universe, and that of Goethe than is evident from 
a few single passages picked out here and there 
at random. In such a study it is clear that, though 
Margaret Fuller has all existence result from 
"Spirit," yet Goethe's doctrine of Spirit-Nature 
was in her mind; since this spirit (Weltseele) 
whose "depths are unknown to itself," becomes 
conscious only by living and "Seeks to know it- 
self" in the working principle of Nature, "thus 
evolving plants, animals, men, suns, etc." This 
close relation is evident when we compare what 
she says here with what Goethe says in his poems, 
Proomion, Eins und Alles, and in Spriiche in 
Prosa (912) : 

Im Namen dessen, der sich selbst erschuf! 
Von Ewigkeit im schaffenden Beruf; 



In jenes Namen, der so oft genannt, 

Dem Wesen nach blieb immer unbekannt."^* 



* Goethe's Proomion. 

* "In the name of him ivho made himself! 

Who from eternity was employed in creating; 



In his name, who so often named, 

Has ever remained unknown as to the nature of his being." 



96 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Concerning this spirit that ^'manifests^' and 
"knows itself" in its creations, compare: — 

"Was war ein Gott, der nur von Aussen stiesse, 
Im Kreis das All am Finger laufen liesse! 
Ihm ziemt's die Welt im Innern zu bewegen, 
Natur in sich, sich in Natur zu hegen/'*^ 

And of the continuity of this creation and evolu- 
tion of "congenial forms/' of which she speaks, 
Goethe says : 

"Und umzuschaflfen das Geschaffne, 
Damit sich's nicht zum Starren waffne, 
Wirkt lebendiges Thun. 
Und was nicht war, nun will es werden 
Zu relnen Sonnen, farbigen Erden.**- 

"Das Werdende, das ewig wirkt und lebt."***^ 
Very near is Margaret Fuller's conception of 

* "What were a God who moved [the world] only from 

without, 
Who let the All circle about his finger! 
It becomes him to move the World inivardly, 
To preserve Nature in himself, himself in Nature." 

* Goethe's Gedichte, Hempel Ed. II. 368. 
** "And to re-create the created, 

That it may not become barren and resist [this contin- 
uous process of creation] 
Calls for living action. 

And what ne'er was is on the point of becoming 
Pure suns, variegated earths." — " Goethe's Eins und Alles. 
*** "The becoming [that which is in the process of creation^, 
which ever works and lives." — ^ Faust, 1. 346. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 97 

the phenomena of the All and the activity of the 
creative Spirit (Weltseele), which she describes in 
the Credo, to that contained in Goethe's Spriiche 
in Prosa (912) : 

*'The fundamental characteristic of the living 
unity is: to separate, to unite, to lose itself in the 
universal, to abide in the particular, to transform 
itself, to specify itself, and as the living, to demon- 
strate itself under a thousand conditions, and 
again to emerge and to disappear, to solidify and 
to melt, to coagulate and to flow, to expand and 
to contract. Now because all these actions go on 
in the same moment of time, every and each phe- 
nomenon may appear at the same time. Coming 
into existence and passing away, creating and de- 
stroying, birth and death, joy and sorrow, every- 
thing goes on in confusion, pell-mell, in the same 
sense and in the same measure; for that reason, 
then, the most extraordinary that takes place, al- 
ways appears as an image and likeness of the most 
universal." 

Concerning the manner in which we begin to in- 
terpret the Universe and find "deeper depths 
opened with each soul," by breaking through an 
obstruction "by faith" and thus making new dis- 



98 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

coveries, Goethe again says in Spriiche in Prosa 

(903): 

"Everything that we invent, discover, in the 
higher sense call by name, Is the significant putting 
Into execution, the giving practical proof of an 
original feeling for truth, which long since de- 
veloped In silence unexpectedly, and as quick as 
lightning leads us to a fruitful perception. It is 
a revelation developed from within, by means of 
the external, which permits man to have a presen- 
timent of his godllkeness. It is a synthesis of 
World and Spirit, which gives us the happiest as- 
surance of the harmony of our being." 

Further on in the Credo Is also Goethean 
thought, though clothed In the language of the 
church. She probably did not herself realize how 
much she was under the Influence of Goethe. Even 
where she seemingly opposes him, is his great In- 
fluence evident. Her whole religious creed, 
though containing orthodox church ideas, Is fun- 
damentally Goethean. 

Evil (obstruction), Margaret Fuller believed, 
is as necessary In the grand scheme of creation and 
in the development of character, as good (accom- 
plishment). This doctrine — that evil Is only the 
negative side of good — appears in her Credo, her 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 99 

letters, and in many of her principal writings, and 
corresponds exactly with the idea expressed by the 
Lord in the Prologue in Heaven of Goethe's 
Faust: 

"Des Menschen Tatigkeit kann allzuleicht erschlaffen, 
Er liebt sich bald die unbedingte Rub; 
Drum geb' ich gem ihm den Gessellen [Mepbis- 

topbeles] zu, 
Der relzt und wirkt und muss als Teufel schaffen."*^ 

Again in the words of Mephistopheles : 

"Ich bin ein Teil von jener Kraft, 
Die stets das Bose will und stets das Gute schafEt."**^ 

"Thus after an unchanging law of nature evd 
even has brought forth good,'" says Herder. 
"All destructive forces must not only in time be 
subdued by the forces of preservation, but must 
also serve to help in the building up of the 

* "Man's active nature, flagging, seeks too soon the level; 
Unqualified repose he learns to crave; 
Whence, willingly, the comrade him I gave, ^^ 
Who works, excites, and must create as Devil." ^ 

—Bayard Taylor's Translation. 

"■ Goethe's Faust, 11. 336 ff. 

** "I am a part of that power ^^ 

Which always wills the bad, and ever works the good. 

^Goethe's Faust, 11. 1335-36. 

^Herder's Ideen, III. 327. 



loo MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

whole/' ^ "Despite the fact that the destructive 
forces In man are his passions, the latter are nec- 
essary to prevent him from 'getting fond of un-, 
conditional repose' . . . Evil, according to this 
conception, acts as a leaven, a fermentative power, 
which finally produces good." ^ 

In a dialogue which Margaret Fuller wrote, the 
two characters represented, speaking on a religious 
topic, agree ''that whatever Is, Is good." ^ In 
another instance she praises the doctrine, "Resist 
not evil," and "every man his own priest, and the 
heart the only true church." * Again one of the 
reporters of the "Conversations" writes: "I have 
thought, sometimes, that her acceptance of evil 
was too great, — that the theory of the good to be 
educed proved too much. But In a conversation 
I had with her yesterday, I understood her better 
than I had done. 'It might never be sin to us, at 
the moment', she said, 'It must be an excess, on 
which conscience puts the restraint'." ^ And lastly 
Caroline H. Dall writes: "She [Margaret Ful- 
ler] believed evil to be a good in the grand scheme 
of things. She would not recognize it as a blunder. 

^Herder's Ideen, p. 314. 

' Goethe's Fausty Ed. Goebel ; Notes, p. 264. 

' Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 185. 

* At Home and Abroad, p. 55 f. 

^ Memoirs, I. 350. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY loi 

She must consider its scope a noble one. In one 
word, she would not accept the world — for she 
felt within herself the power to reject it — did she 
not believe evil working in it for good! Man had 
gained more than he lost by his fall." ^ 

This doctrine, in which she so thoroughly be- 
lieved is the fundamental doctrine of Faust and \y 
JVilhehn Meister. There Is little doubt that she 
got these ideas chiefly from these works. Cer- 
tain it Is that this is neither Transcendental nor 
Puritan doctrine. 

Closely associated with Margaret Fuller's doc- 
trine of good and evil, is her belief In a complete ^ 
abandonment to our higher nature. She had, how- 
ever, absolutely no patience with those who, under 
this pretext, gave themselves over to their pas- 
sions, or who allowed sentimentality to master 
completely their whole being. It is thus that she 
criticises sharply, in the one case, George Sand, 
and in the other, Bettine Brentano, "I love aban- 
don only when natures are capable of the extreme 
reverse," she says.- Emerson writes that in life, 
"Margaret suffered no vice to insult her presence, 
but called the offender to instant account, when the 

^Margaret and Her Friends, p. 113 f. 
^Memoirs, I. 248. 



102 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

law of right or beauty was violated." ^ "Mar- 
garet crowned all her talents and virtues with a 
love of truth, and the power to speak it," says 
Emerson again.^ Horace Greeley emphasizes the 
same characteristic, as do all her biographers. 
And with all of this she was a most natural woman. 
"I love best to be a woman," she, herself, said. 
And Emerson records, that, "In character, Mar- 
garet was, of all she had beheld, the largest 
woman, and not a woman who wished to be a 
man. 

It Is clear that what Margaret Fuller most de- 
sired was to find out the truth of human nature; 
and having arrived at a complete understanding of 
it, ever to remain true to its highest principles and 
laws of development. "Like Goethe," she writes, 
"I have never given way to my feelings, but have 
lived active, thoughtful, seeking to be wise." * 

Margaret Fuller, like Goethe, believed that a 
powerful, if not the most powerful agency In call- 
ing out this inner life of feeling, is poetry. She 
considered It "the only path of the true soul," and 
believed that, though "we might not always be 
poetic in life," yet "we might and should be poetic 

^Memoirs, I. 306. 'Ibid., p. 303. 

*Ibid., I. 300. *Ibid., p. 197. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 103 

in our thought and intention." ^ What she has 
in mind here is the aesthetic education advocated 
by Goethe, and especially by Schiller, in which 
poetry is one of the most powerful agencies. 
What a quickening influence Goethe's poetry had 
upon Margaret Fuller's inner life we have already 
seen.- 

Margaret Fuller's deep interest in the plastic 
arts was, according to Emerson, first inspired by 
Goethe.^ When we read her letters and what she 
says on the subject in the reports of her "Boston 
Conversations," and in her articles in the Dial,^ 
we readily see the relation that art must have 
borne to her inner life, and what she must have 
contributed, by her personal influence and her 
writings, to the rise of enthusiasm for the fine arts 
in and about Boston, during her time, — an en- 
thusiasm that has grown and developed until the 
present day. "The fine arts," she said, "were 
one compensation for the necessary prose of life, 
— for not being able to live out our poesy amid 
the conflicting and disturbing forces of this moral 
world in which we are." Of the plastic arts 

^Memoirs, I. p. 341. 

^Cf. p. 3. 

^Memoirs, I. 266 ff. 

*Art, Literature, and the Drama, 284 flF, 



104 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Margaret Fuller preferred sculpture. "That 
was grand," she said, *'when a man first thought 
to engrave his Idea of man upon a stone, the 
most unyielding and material of materials, — 
the backbone of the phenomenal earth, — and 
when he did not succeed, that he persevered; 
and so at last, by repeated efforts, the Apollo 
came to be." Paintings she thought worked more 
by Illusion. But the chief of arts was life Itself, 
of which all other arts were merely beautiful 
symbols.^ Margaret Fuller did not, however, 
become Impractical, because she tried to live out a 
poetic, artistic thought. "She did not permit the 
search for the beautiful to transcend the limits of 
our social and personal duties," Mrs. Howe said. 
"The pursuit of aesthetic pleasure might lead us 
to fall In attaining the higher beauty." ^ Not 
"Art for Art's sake," merely, but for drawing 
from this source Inspiration for building up a beau- 
tiful and harmonious character, and a sense of the 
beautiful In life: this was her doctrine, like that of 
Goethe and Schiller before her. She tried always 
to arrive at the truth lying back of beauty. The 
two Ideas, Beauty and Truth, for her, were In- 
separable. 

^Memoirs, I. 340 ff. 'Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 112. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 105 

Nor does our development, according to her 
belief, cease in this present life. *'I believe in 
Eternal Progression," she writes. "I believe in a 
God, a Beauty and Perfection to which I am to 
strive all my life for assimilation. From these 
two articles of belief, I draw the rules by which 
I strive to regulate my life." ^ This same doc- 
trine, that we pass from one stage to another, 
through a series of lives approaching ever nearer, 
in our development, the perfect state, is expressed 
also In her Credo.^ This present life represents 
merely one of a series of lives we live, one of the 
several stages through which we pass on our 
road to perfection. Thus she criticizes Goethe, 
for remaining In court circles at Weimar: — 
''Perhaps Goethe Is even now [a decade after 
his death] sensible that he should not have stopped 
at Weimar as his home, but made It one station 
on the way to Paradise ; not stopped at humanity, 
but regarded It as symbolic of the divine, and 
given to others to feel more distinctly the center of 
the universe, as well as the harmony In Its parts. "^ 

The thought that Goethe had not yet reached 
his highest wisdom and perfection is also indicated 

^Memoirs, I. 136. 

" Cf. Appendix, p. 250 f. 

' Life Without and Life Within, p. 45. 



io6 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

at the end of her second article In the Dial: — "Let 
us enter Into his higher tendency, thank him for 
such angels as Iphlgenle, whose simple truth mocks 
at all his wise 'Beschrankungen\ and hope the hour 
when, girt about with many such, he will confess, 
contrary to his opinion, given In his latest days, 
that It is well worth while to live seventy years, if 
only to find that they are nothing in the sight of 
God." ' 

Here, too, we find the same thought In Goethe : 
*'It Is acknowledged that man consists of two 
parts, body and soul. ... I doubt not of our im- 
mortality, for nature cannot dlspensewlthourcon- 
tlnued activity." ^ "Christianity has a might of Its 
own, lifting up, from time to time, dejected, suf- 
fering humanity, and in this rises above all philos- 
ophy, and needs no support therefrom. Neither 
does the philosopher need the support of religion 
to prove certain doctrines; for Instance, that exist- 
ence is prolonged Into eternity. Man must be- 
lieve In immortality; this belief corresponds with 
the wants of his nature. . . . To me, the eternal ex- 
istence of my soul Is proved, from my need of ac- 
tivity; If I work Incessantly till my death, nature Is 

* Life Without and Life Within, p. 60. 
^ Conversations ivith Goethe, p. 320. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 107 

pledged to give me another form of being when 
the present can no longer sustain my spirit." ^ 

Margaret Fuller inherited still another charac- 
teristic of her belief from her Master, Goethe, 
namely, her belief in daemonology. As Emerson 
has pointed out, she was naturally of a temper- 
ament to whom "coincidences, good and bad, 
omens, etc.," had a deep significance. This pecul- 
iar characteristic dated back to her youth and was 
originally due, probably, to an overtaxed nervous 
system, and to poor health later on. It is easily 
seen how naturally a belief in daemonology, such 
as Goethe's, would appeal to her. 

"This propensity," writes Emerson, "Margaret 
held with certain tenets of fate, which always 
swayed her, and which Goethe, who had found 
room and fine names for all this in his system, 
had encouraged; and I may add, which her own 
experiences, early and late, seemed strangely to 
justify. . . . This remote seeking for the decrees 
of fate, this feeling of a destiny, casting its 
shadows from the very morning of thought, is the 
most beautiful species of idealism in our day. 'Tis 
finely manifested in Wallenstein." ^ Tasso, Rous- 

^ Conversations iviih Goethe, Margaret Fuller's translation, 
p. 270. 

Memoirs, I. 222. 



io8 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

seau, Goethe, and Napoleon were, she believed, 
under this strange influence to a very high degree. 
She of course, as Emerson has said, believed that 
she, too, was swayed by this same mysterious 
power. 

"When Goethe," she writes, "received a letter 
from Zelter with a handsome superscription, he 
said, 'Lay that aside ; it is Zelter's true hand-writ- 
ing. Every man has a daemon, who is busy to con- 
fuse and limit his life. No way is the action of this 
power more clearly shown, than In the hand-writ- 
ing. On this occasion, the evil Influences have 
been evaded; the mood, the hand, the pen and 
paper have conspired to let our friend write truly 
himself. ... I think often of this little passage. 
With me, for weeks and months, the daemon 
works his will. Nothing succeeds with me. I fall 
111, or am otherwise Interrupted. At these times, 
whether of frost, or sultry weather, I would gladly 
neither plant nor reap, — wait for the better times, 
which sometimes come, when I forget that sick- 
ness is ever possible. ... As to the Daemonia- 
cal, I know not that I can say to you anything more 
precise than you find from Goethe. There are no 
precise terms for such thoughts. The word in- 
stinctive indicates their existence. I intimated it in 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 109 

the little piece on the Drachenfels/ . . . When 
conscious, self-asserting, it becomes (as power 
working for its own sake, unwilling to acknowl- 
edge love for its superior, must) the devil. That 
is the legend of Lucifer, the star that would not 
own Its center. Yet, while it is unconscious, It is 
not devilish, only daemoniac. In nature, we trace 
it in all volcanic workings. In a boding position of 
lights. In whispers of the wind, ... in deceitful 
Invitations of the water, . . and in the shapes of 
all those beings who go about seeking what they 
may devour. We speak of a mystery, a dread; we 
shudder, but we approach still nearer, and a part 
of our nature listens, sometimes answers to this 
influence, which if not indestructible, is at least 
indissolubly linked with the existence of matter. 

"In genius, and in character, It works, as you 
say instinctively; it refuses to be analyzed by the 
understanding, and is most of all Inaccessible to 
the person who possesses it. We can only say, I 
have it, he has it. . . . It is most obvious In the 
eye. As we look on such eyes, we think on the 
tiger, the serpent, beings who lurk, glide, fascinate, 
mysteriously control. For it Is occult by Its nature, 
and If It could meet you on the highway, and be 

*This is a poem she wrote and sent to a friend. 



I lo MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

familiarly known as an acquaintance, could not 
exist. The angels of light do not love, yet they 
do not insist on exterminating it. 

"It has given rise to the fables of wizard, en- 
chantress, and the like; these beings are scarcely 
good, yet not necessarily bad. Power tempts them. 
They draw their skills from the dead, because 
their being is coeval with that of matter, and mat- 
ter is the mother of death." ^ 

In discussing further this same subject, Mar- 
garet Fuller says of the Duke of Weimar: 
"Goethe describes him as Ddmonisch, that is, 
gifted with an instinctive, spontaneous force, 
which at once, without calculation or foresight, 
chooses the right means to an end. As these be- 
ings do not calculate, so is their influence incal- 
culable. Their repose has as much influence over 
other beings as their action, even as the thunder 
cloud, lying black and distant in the summer sky, 
is not less imposing than when it bursts and gives 
forth its quick hghtnings. . . . Sometimes, though 
rarely, we see such a man in an obscure position; 
circumstances have not led him to a large sphere; 
he may not have expressed in words a single 
^Memoirs, I. 224 ff. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY in 

thought worth recording; but by his eye and voice 
he rules all around him. 

''He stands upon his feet with a firmness and 
calm security which makes other men seem to halt 
and totter In their gait. In his deep eye is seen an 
Infinite comprehension, an Infinite reserve of 
power. No accent of his sonorous voice is lost on 
any ear within hearing; and, when he speaks, 
men hate or fear perhaps the disturbing power 
they feel, but never dream of disobeying." 

Quoting Goethe's own words, she gives Goethe 
himself as an illustration of one who possessed 
these daemoniacal powers : " 'The boy believed 
in nature, in the animate and Inanimate, the intel- 
ligent and unconscious, to discover somewhat 
which manifested Itself only through contradic- 
tion, and therefore could not be comprehended by 
any conception, much less defined by a word. It 
was not divine, for It seemed without reason; not 
human, because without understanding; not devil- 
ish, because It worked to good; not angelic, be- 
cause It often betrayed a petulant love of mischief. 
It was like chance, in that it proved no sequence; 
it suggested the thought of Providence, because 
It Indicated connection. To this all our limitations 
seem penetrable ; It seemed to play at will with all 



1 12 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

the elements of our being; it compressed time and 
dilated space. Only in the impossible did it seem 
to delight, and to cast the possible aside with 
disdain. 

" 'This existence which seemed to mingle with 
others, sometimes to separate, sometimes to unite, 
I called the Damonisch, after the exam^ple of the 
ancients, and others who have observed somewhat 
similar.' " ' 

'' 'The Damonisch is that which cannot be ex- 
plained by reason or understanding; it lies not in 
my nature, but I am subject to it. 

" 'Napoleon was a being of this class, and in so 
high a degree that scarce any one is to be com- 
pared with him. Also our late grand duke [Karl 
August of Weimar, Goethe's benefactor] was such 
a nature, full of unlimited power of action and un- 
rest, so that his own dominion was too little for 
him, and the greatest would have been too little. 
Demoniac beings of this sort the Greeks reckoned 
among their demigods'." % ^ 

Even in her last years Margaret Fuller still held 
to this Goethean belief in daemonology. She 

* Quoted by Margaret Fuller from Dichtung und fVahrheit. 
2 Quoted by Margaret Fuller from Conversations with Ecker. 
mann. 
' Life Without and Life Within, p. 32 f. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 113 

writes from Italy: "My days at Milan were not 
unmarked. I have known some happy hours, but 
they all lead to sorrow, and not only the cups of 
wine, but of milk, seem drugged with poison, for 
me. It does not seem to be my fault, this destiny. 
I do not court these things, — they come. I am a 
poor magnet, with power to be wounded by the 
bodies I attract." ^ 

Margaret Fuller was, from 1840 to 1842, chief 
editor of the Dial, which was considered a Tran- 
scendental organ. It has, therefore, been sup- 
posed by many that she must also, of necessity, 
have been a Transcendentalist. In one of her let- 
ters is clearly stated the fact, however, that she 
never considered the Dial at the beginning of Its 
career, nor In fact at any time during her editor- 
ship, a magazine belonging to any one sect, party, 
or confession, but an organ to allow free expres- 
sion of thought In literature, religion, and philoso- 
phy, from any and all, whatsoever their confes- 
sion or creed. So "eclectic and miscellaneous," in 
fact, was the magazine, according to Emerson, 
"that each of its readers and writers valued only 3, 
small portion of It." ^ On March 22, 1840, Mar- 
garet Fuller writes: 

^Memoirs, I. 226. 'Ibid, p. 323. 



1 14 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

*'What others can do, — whether all that has 
been said is the mere restlessness of discontent, 
or there are thoughts really struggling for utter- 
ance, — will be tested now. A perfectly free 
organ is to be offered for the expression of indi- 
vidual thought and character. There are no 
party measures to be carried, no particular stand- 
ard to be set up. A fair, calm tone, a recognition 
of universal principles, will, I hope, pervade the 
essays in every form. I trust there will be a spirit 
neither of dogmatism nor of compromise, and that 
this journal will aim, not at leading public opinion, 
but at stimulating each man to judge for himself, 
and to think more deeply and more nobly, by 
letting him see how some minds are kept alive 
by wise self-trust. . . . We shall manifest free 
action, as far as it goes, and a high aim. It 
were much if a periodical could be kept open, 
not to accomplish any outward object, but merely 
to afford an avenue for what of liberal and calm 
thought might be originated among us, by the 
wants of individual minds." ^ 

In another letter dated April 19, 1840, Mar- 
garet Fuller says, with reference to what the 
people expect of the Dial and what they will 

* Memoirs, II. 25. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 115 

not find: "Things go on pretty well, but doubt- 
less people will be disappointed, for they seem to 
be looking for the gospel of Transcendentalism." ^ 
The same incorrect conclusion with reference 
to Margaret Fuller, namely, that she shared in 
the doctrines of the New England Transcenden- 
talists, has often been drawn from the mere fact 
that she belonged to a club designated as the 
"Transcendental Club," — and also, as we have 
seen, the "Symposium," and "Hedge Club." But, 
that the club held to no one particular religious 
belief, or philosophy, and was, altogether, about 
as cosmopolitan as any club could well be, is evi- 
dent from a description of it by W. H. Chan- 
ning: "By mere attraction of affinity," he writes, 
"grew together the brotherhood of the 'Like- 
minded,' as they were pleasantly nick-named by 
outsiders, and by themselves, on the ground that 
no two were of the same opinion. The only pass- 
word of membership to this association, which 
had no compact, records, or officers, was a hopeful 
and liberal spirit; and its chance conventions were 
determined merely by the desire of the caller for 
a 'talk,' or by the arrival of some guest from a 
distance with a budget of presumptive novelties. 

^Memoirs, II. 25 f. 



1 16 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Its ^symposium' was a picnic, whereto each 
brought his gains as he felt prompted, a bunch 
of wild grapes from the woods, or bread-corn 
from his threshing-floor. The tone of the as- 
semblies was cordial welcome for every one's 
peculiarity; and scholars, farmers, mechanics, 
merchants, married women, and maidens, met 
there on a level of courteous respect." ^ 

Margaret Fuller attended these meetings, as 
did many others who went thither either to learn 
the new thoughts contributed by the other mem- 
bers, or who had something new to Impart, 
whether It was ''transcendental" or not. 

Of course, Margaret Fuller was a very welcome 
and appreciated member here, for she doubtless 
brought many new Ideas. Because of her ability 
to contribute so richly In thought, because of her 
wonderful powers of conversation, and the fact 
that she was a born leader, W. H. Channing 
might well and consistently call her "a peer of 
the realm" In this cosmopolitan gathering, and 
say she was a "member by grace of nature," "^ 
where any new thought was welcome, and "the 
only guest not tolerated, was Intolerance." ^ 

Her talks or "Conversations" must have been 

' Memoirs, II. 14 f. ' Ibid., II. 18. ' Ibid., p. 15. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 117 

very effective, according to her blographer-s, and 
still more the "side-talks," which the general con- 
versations led to. W. H. Channing says of them : 
"Very observable was It, also, how. In side talks 
with her, they became confidential, seemed to 
glow and brighten Into their best mood, and 
poured out In full measure what they but scantily 
hinted In the circle at large." ^ 

The thoughts she offered, far from being merely 
speculative, as was characteristic of Transcen- 
dentalism, seem to have been eminently practical, 
and always to have had, when the conversations 
turned on the subject of character-building, the 
great Goethean aim of an inner development 
of the soul, of a drawing out of what was best 
in the Individual, at the foundation. We can 
probably best judge the lofty, practical character 
of Margaret Fuller's talks at these meetings, by 
those of her famous Boston "Conversations," a 
little later, which were of the same nature, and 
of which we have the reports. The great aim In 
these latter "Conversations" was to answer the 
Questions "What Is Life?" and "What were we 
born to do? and how shall we do it?" ^ In a 
letter Intended for circulation she writes, just 

^Memoirs, p. 19. ^Ibid., L, 325, 345. 



1 18 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

before the beginning of one of her classes for 
women in 1839: "Women are now taught, at 
school, all that men are; they run over, super- 
ficially, even more studies, without being really 
taught anything. When they come to the busi- 
ness of life, they find themselves Inferior, and all 
their studies have not given them that practical 
good sense, and mother wisdom, and wit." ^ "My 
ambition goes further. It is to pass in review 
the departments of thought and knowledge, and 
endeavor to place them in due relation to one 
another in our minds. To systematize thought, 
and give a precision and clearness in which our 
sex are so deficient, chiefly, I think, because they 
have so few inducements to test and classify what 
they receive. To ascertain what pursuits are best 
suited to us, In our time and state of society, and 
how we may make best use of our means for 
building up the life of thought upon the life of 
action.'^ ^ 

This all certainly sounds practical, and when 
the active life she lived in deed and thought is 
considered, we certainly cannot accuse her of 
transcendental self-absorption, "a withdrawal," as 
W. H. Channing says of the Transcendentalists, 

^Memoirs, I. p. 329. ^Ibid., I. 325. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 



119 



"to private study and contemplation, that they 
might be 'alone with the Alone!' " ^ Margaret 
Fuller had always before her a definite, fixed 
purpose, and took steps to put it into execution 
as soon as she saw her way clear. She had little 
of that "dwelling among the clouds" and imprac- 
tlcality, mentioned by Channing, as characteristic 
of the Transcendentallsts. She differed from 
them In character and temperament. "Her ro- 
mantic freshness of heart," says Channing, "her 
craving for the truth; . . . her discipline In Ger- 
man schools had given definite form and tendency 
to her Idealism. . . . On the other hand, strong 
common-sense saved her from becoming vision- 
ary." ' 

Looked at from the practical aim which 
Margaret Fuller always kept In view, some of 
her seemingly far-fetched statements In her "Con- 
versations" appear in an entirely different light; 
and the little book, Margaret and Her Friends, — 
which Is probably a report of the poorest series 
of her "Conversations" — may not be quite so 
meaningless. Even through these last mentioned, 
very meager reports we can see gleaming the 
great purpose she had in view. When we con- 

^ Memoirs, II. 13. 'Ibid., II. 18. 



v<;^ 






A 



I20 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

sider the high positions which some of the young 
women belonging to Margaret Fuller's circle at- 
tained, as leaders In the thought and philanthropy 
of New England for over half a century, we know 
what these ''Conversations," where what was 
noble and best in them was called out, meant to 
them. A single passage from one of these same 
young women, Mrs. Ednah Dow Cheney, is suffi- 
cient testimony to show what Margaret Fuller did 
for all of them here. "I found myself in a new 
world of thought;" says Mrs. Cheney, "a flood 
of light irradiated all that I had seen in nature, 
observed in life, or read in books. Whatever 
she spoke of revealed a hidden meaning, and 
everything seemed to be put Into true relation. 
Perhaps I could best express it by saying that I 
was no longer the limitation of myself, but I felt 
that the whole wealth of the universe was open 
to me. It was this consciousness of the illimitable 
ego, the divinity in the soul, which was so real to 
Margaret herself. . . . She did not make us her 
disciples, her blind followers. She opened the 
book of life and helped us to read it for our- 
selves." ^ Without question Margaret Fuller tried 
here, and succeeded, in putting Into effect her 

^ Reminiscences of Ednah Dow Cheney, p. 205. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 121 

educational and religious ideals, and to develop 
the Inner life of each and every one in her 
"classes" after the manner in which she had her- 
self been so powerfully developed by Goethe. 

The Transcendentallsts on the other hand, 
according to Channing, ''felt that systematic re- 
sults were not yet to be looked for, and that In 
sallies of conjecture, glimpses and flights of 
ecstacy, the 'Newness' lifted her veil to her 
votaries." ^ Mrs. Howe calls Transcendentalism 
"beautiful and inconvenient," and says, "Method 
it could not boast. Free discussion, abstinence 
from participation In ordinary social life and re- 
ligious worship, a restless seeking for sympathy, 
and a constant formulation of sentiments which, 
exalted in themselves^ seemed to lose something 
of their character by the frequency with which 
they were presented, — these were some of the 
traits which Transcendentalism showed." - 

That Margaret Fuller did not consider herself 
a Transcendentalist, but saw clearly the differences 
between herself and them, is further shown by her 
own description and discussion of Transcenden- 
talism, its causes and failings. She writes, in 
1840, concerning the superficial foundation upon 

* Memoirs, II. 14. ^ Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 90 f. 



122 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

which it was forced to build, — the materialism, 
"the slight literary culture," and "this hasty way 
of thinking:" 

"Since the Revolution, there has been little, 
in the circumstances of this country, to call out 
the higher sentiments. The effect of continued 
prosperity is the same on nations as on individuals, 
— it leaves the nobler faculties undeveloped. The 
need of bringing out the physical resources of a 
vast extent of country, the commercial and politi- 
cal fever Incident to our Institutions, tend to fix 
the eyes of men on what is local and temporary, 
on the external advantages of their conditions. 
The superficial diffusion of knowledge, unless at- 
tended by a correspondent deepening of its sources, 
is likely to vulgarize rather than to raise the 
thought of a nation, depriving them of another 
sort of education through sentiments of reverence, 
and leading the multitude to believe themselves 
capable of judging what they but dimly discern. 
They see a wide surface, and forget the difference 
between seeing and knowing. In this hasty way of 
thinking and living they traverse so much ground 
that they forget that not the sleeping railroad 
passenger, but the botanist, the geologist, the poet, 
really see the country, and that to the former, 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 123 

'a miss is as good as a mile.' In a word, the ten- 
dency of circumstances has been to make our 
people superficial, irreverent, and more anxious 
to get a living than to live mentally and morally. 
This tendency is no way balanced by the slight 
literary culture common here, which is mostly Eng- 
lish, and consists in a careless reading of publica- 
tions of the day, having the same utilitarian 
tendency with our own proceedings. The infre- 
quency of acquaintance with any of the great 
fathers of English lore marks this state of things." 
Concerning the Transcendentallsts themselves 
and their characteristics, she says: "New England 
is now old enough, — some there have leisure 
enough, — to look at all this; and the consequence is 
a violent reaction. In a small minority [the Tran- 
scendentallsts], against a mode of culture that 
rears such fruits. They see that political freedom 
does not necessarily produce liberality of mind, 
nor freedom in church institutions — vital religion; 
and, seeing that these changes cannot be wrought 
from without Inwards, they are trying to quicken 
the soul, that they may work from within outwards. 
Disgusted with the vulgarity of a commercial 
aristocracy, they become radicals; disgusted with 
the materialistic working of 'rational' religion, 



124 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

they become mystics. They quarrel with all that 
is, because it is not spiritual enough. They would, 
perhaps, be patient if they thought this the mere 
sensuality of childhood In our nation, which it 
might outgrow; but they think that they see the 
evil widening, deepening, — not only debasing the 
life, but corrupting the thought of our people, and 
they feel that if they know not well what should 
be done, yet that the duty of every good man is 
to utter a protest against what is done amiss. 

'Ts this protest undiscrlmlnating? are these 
opinions crude? do these proceedings threaten to 
sap the bulwarks on which men at present depend? 
I confess It all." ' She did not believe in their 
extreme subjectivity and lack of historical sense, 
or in carrying the Idea of "transcending sense and 
time" too far; for, as W. H. Channing writes: 

"By their very posture of mind, as seekers of 
the new, the Transcendentallsts were critics and 
*come-outers' from the old. Neither the church, the 
state, the college, society, nor even reform asso- 
ciations had a hold upon their hearts. The past 
might be well enough for those who without make- 
beheve, could put faith in common dogmas and 
usages; but for them ... the herald-trump of 

^ Memoirs, II. 26 ff. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 125 

freedom was heard upon the mountains." ^ Mar- 
garet Fuller hopes, however, they will yet "learn 
how to make use of the past, as well as to aspire 
for the future, and be true in the present mo- 
ment." ^ "Civilization," she said, "must be homo- 
geneous, — must be a natural growth." ^ She 
agreed with the Transcendentalists that a reform 
was urgent; but to cut absolutely loose from the 
past, to reject all that the ages gone by had left 
us as a heritage, good and bad alike, seemed to 
her too revolutionary, too radical. There was 
much worthy of preservation. Dreaming in their 
mysticism,* the Transcendentalists, she believed, 
often lost themselves in idle visions of a perfect 
state of society. "Utopia," she writes, "It is Im- 
possible to build up. At least, my hopes for our 
race on this one planet are more limited than 
those of most of my friends." "I accept," she 
says with Goethe, "the limitations of human na- 
ture, and believe a wise acknowledgement of them 
one of the best conditions of progress." * 

^Memoirs, II. 14. "Ibid., p. 29. 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 186. 

* Margaret Fuller, like Goethe, believed "There ought really 
to be no Christian mystics at all, since religion itself presents 
mysteries enough. Christian mystics, too, always go immediately 
into the abstruse, into the abysses of the subject." (Goethe's 
Spriiche in Prosa, 297.) 

* Memoirs, II. 29. 



126 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Even concerning the subjects which she had 
been unable to investigate, because of her position 
as a woman, and the many private duties which 
occupied her time, she says; ^'I suppose, if I ever 
become capable of judging, I shall differ from 
most of them [the Transcendentalists] on im- 
^^^' portant points." ^ One of the points in which 
she, the pupil of Goethe, differed essentially from 
the Transcendentalists was as to what should be 
done with the "Material" part of man, that is, 
his physical nature. They, in common with the 
other religious sects, and as has been pointed out, 
with Kant's philosophy, had regarded this side 
of man as the seat of original sin, or radical evil, 
and were consequently decrying continually its 
irrepressible assertions, as "sluggishness" and 
"worldliness" of spirit.^ Margaret Fuller felt 
sharply that it was here where the difference be- 
tween the concealed Puritanism of the Transcen- 
dentalists and the progressive and higher ethical 
principles of Goethe-Schiller becomes apparent. 
It is, in a way, the difference between the idealist 
and the realist which Schiller describes so mas- 
terfully in his essay Ueber Naive und Sentimen- 
tale Dichtung, "That is the real life," Margaret 

* Memoirs, II. 39 f. ' Ibid., p. 30. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 127 

Fuller writes, "which is subordinated to, not 
merged in, the ideal; he is only wise who can 
bring the lowest act of his life into sympathy with 
its highest thought. And this I take to be the 
only aim of our pilgrimage here. I agree with 
those who think that no true philosophy will try 
to ignore or annihilate the material part of man, 
but will rather seek to put it in its place, as servant 
and minister to the soul." ^ 

While the differences between Margaret Ful- 
ler's belief and that of the Transcendentalists were 
evident to her, and while she discerned clearly 
their chief failings, she was not blind to the 
good traits which they had. She could not help 
but consider their aim a true one, and their 
schemes noble in intention. She sympathized with 
them in this respect: that they — impractical as 
their schemes may have been — meant to ennoble 
human nature, and that they had, in truth, "poetic 
manifestations," and "a standard transcending 
sense and time" ^ among a people whose mind 
and energies she thought, were, at the time, bent 
entirely too much upon the present and the ac- 
cumulation of material resources. She sees the 
"promise of a better wisdom" among the Tran- 

' Memoirs, II. 30 f. 'Ibid., II. 29. 



128 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

scendentallsts than among the great materialistic, 
comfort-loving majority of their fellow-country- 
men. She has confidence, "despite their partial 
views, imperfectly developed characters, and fre- 
quent want of practical sagacity," that, "if they 
have opportunity to state and discuss their 
opinions, they will gradually sift them, and ascer- 
tain their grounds and aims with clearness." "I 
hope for them," she concludes, "as for the *leaven 
that is hidden in the bushel of meal till all be 
leavened.' The leaven Is not good by itself, 
neither is the meal; let them combine and we 
shall yet have bread." ^ 

Here, throughout this discussion, it is again 
perfectly clear that Margaret Fuller did not count 
herself among the Transcendentalists, and that 
her sympathy for them was merely a hope that 
they would in time see more clearly and "do the 
work this country needs." She Is always careful 
to speak of them In the third person. She always 
makes a sharp distinction between "they" and 
"I," and never says "we" In referring to them. 

The desire of the Transcendentallst to with- 
draw from the hum and bustle of city life, that he 
might be more "alone with the Alone" and live 

^ Memoirs, II. 28 f. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 129 

more a life of meditation, probably had much to 
do with the establishment of the community at 
Brook Farm, a scheme with which Margaret 
Fuller was never In sympathy, though she visited 
her friends there. She had at most, only a partial 
faith In the doctrines of Fourier, which the Brook 
Farmers had adopted, and which were similar 
to those of Rousseau, much as Rousseau had 
charmed her when she first read him. In Woman 
in the Nineteenth Century Margaret Fuller dis- 
cusses at some length Fourier's doctrines and social 
reform schemes, states her objections to them, 
and compares them with Goethe's solution of the 
same vexed problem, namely the betterment of 
society. Though she calls Fourier an "Apostle of 
the new order. . . that Is to rise from love," 
she thinks he Is only partially right. He lays too 
much stress on the external side of man's nature 
and not enough on the Internal. 

"The mind of Fourier," she writes, "though ^^ 'f^ 

grand and clear, was In some respects superficial. /V^ 
He was a stranger to the highest experiences. His 
eye was fixed on the outward more than on the 
Inward needs of Man. . . . On the opposite side 
of the advancing army leads the great Apostle 
of Individual culture, Goethe. Swedenborg makes 



'f*^ 



v/ 



130 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

organization and union the necessary results of 
solitary thought. Fourier, whose nature was, 
above all, constructive, looked to them too ex- 
clusively. Better Institutions he thought, will 
make better men. Goethe expressed. In every way, 
the other side. If one man could present better 
forms, the rest could not use them till ripe for 
them. Fourier says. As the Institution, so the 
men ! All follies are excusable and natural under 
bad Institutions. Goethe thinks. As the man, so 
the Institutions! There Is no excuse for Ignor- 
ance and folly. A man can grow In any place. If 
he will." ^ 

Margaret Fuller does not, Indeed, agree en- 
tirely with either one of these reformers In the 
sweeping generality of their statements. She be- 
llves that "bad Institutions are prison-walls;" but, 
on the other hand, that It Is folly to ''expect to 
change mankind at once, or even 'In three genera- 
tions'," as Fourier and the Brook Farmers pro- 
posed to do, "by arrangement of groups and 
series, or flourish of trumpets for attractive 
Industry. If these attempts are made by unready 
men," she concludes, "they will fall." ^ Margaret 

^ Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 123 ff. 
^Ibid., p. 124. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 131 

Fuller favors rather a union of the two systems. 
With Goethe she believes that character should 
be built up and strengthened from within; but also, 
that the institutions of society, without, should 
be Improved and made to aid man in his upward 
tendency. 

After discussing the great characters In 
Goethe's masterpieces in this same work of hers, 
Woman in the Nineteenth Century^ Margaret 
Fuller expresses her satisfaction with his doctrine, 
and shows wherein he is superior to Fourier, and 
why she prefers Goethe. 

''Goethe's book \_JVilhelm Meister],'' she 
writes, "bodes an era of freedom like its own of 
'extraordinary, generous-seeking,' and new revela- 
tions. New Individualities shall be developed in 
the actual world, which shall advance upon It as 
gently as the figures come out upon his canvas. 

"I have indicated on this point the coincidence 
between his hopes and those of Fourier, though 
his [Goethe's] are directed by an infinitely higher 
and deeper knowledge of human nature." "It 
is to Wilhelm Melster's Apprenticeship and Wan- 
dering Years that I would especially refer, as these 
volumes contain the sum of the Sage's observations 
during a long life, as to what Man should do, 



132 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

under present circumstances, to obtain mastery 
over outward, through an Initiation into Inward 
life, and severe discipline of faculty." In this same 
connection she says: "In all these expressions 
of Woman, the aim of Goethe Is satisfactory to 
me. He aims at a pure self-subslstance, and a free 
development of any powers with which they may 
be gifted by nature as much for them as for men. 
They are uni*ts, addressed as souls." ^ Nothing 
could be clearer here than that Margaret Fuller 
accepted Goethe's solution of character-building 
In preference to Fourier's whose doctrines the 
Brook Farm Transcendentallsts attempted to put 
Into practice and live out In their community at 
West Roxbury, Massachusetts. 

Margaret Fuller was unlike the Transcendental- 
lsts, also, In that she was not at all given to 
speculation on vague philosophical qustions, as 
such. She wanted something practical, something 
that bore a real relation to her Inner life and 
development. "I have always felt," she writes, 
^ ./*^that man must know how to stand firm on the 
ground, before he can fly." ' She evidently shared 
with Goethe the same contempt for metaphysics 
which found its clear expression in the advice of 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 126 f. 
'Memoirs, I. 20. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 133 

Mephlstopheles to the student in Faust, for she 
writes in a letter, September, 1832 : "Not see the 
use of metaphysics? A moderate portion, taken at 
stated intervals, I hold to be of much use as disci- 
pline of the faculties. I only object to them as 
having an absorbing and anti-productive tendency. 
. . . The brain," she concludes, "does not easily 
get too dry for that [Metaphysics]." ^ In medi- 
tating a Life of Goethe she speaks again of "that 
indisposition, or even dread" - of the study of 
Metaphysics. With Novalis she agrees that "Phi- 
losophy is peculiarly home-sickness, an overmas- 
tering desire to be at home," and asks: "But what 
is there all-comprehending , eternally-conscious 
about that?" "I do want a system," she says, 
"which shall suffice to my character, and in whose 
application I shall have faith. I do not wish to 
reflect always, if reflecting must be always about 
one's identity, whether ^ich' am the true 'ich,' etc. 
I wish to arrive at that point where I can trust 
myself, and leave off saying, 'It seems to me,' and 
boldly feel. It is so to me. My character has 
got its natural regulator, my heart beats, my lips 
speak truth, I can walk alone, or offer my arm 
to a friend, or if I lean on another, it is not the 

^Memoirs, I. 124. "Ibid., p. 127. 



134 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

debility of sickness, but only wayside weariness. 
This is the philosophy / want; this much would 
satisfy me/' ^ 

From these statements and from what she said 
of the Individual philosophers whom she studied, 
it Is very clear that, unlike the Transcendentalists, 
she had httle liking for speculative philosophy; so 
httle in fact, that like Goethe, she did not find this 
study a congenial field at all. 
"' Dr. Goddard, though he admits and shows that 
Margaret Fuller was greatly Influenced by Goethe, 
seems to have tried to make a great deal out of 
the single passage from one of Margaret Fuller's 
letters, concerning the Influence of Emerson on 
her; thereby evidently trying to make her out a 
Transcendentalist, as Emerson was. In the pas- 
sage quoted Margaret Fuller writes: *'You ques- 
tion me as to the nature of the benefits conferred 
upon me by Mr. E.'s preaching. I answer, that 
his Influence has been more beneficial to me than 
that of any American, and that from him I first 
learned what Is meant by an Inward life." - 

But the very fact that she confines her state- 
ment to American, and does not make it perfectly 
general, is unmistakable evidence that she had in 

"^ Memoirs, I. 123. ^Ibld., I. 194 f. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY i35 

mind some one else not American, who exercised 
a greater and more beneficial influence on her. 
No doubt Emerson had a considerable influence 
on her-greater than that of any other Ameri- 
can. He doubdess appealed to her profounder 
thoughts, and may also have awakened remmis- 
cences of her subconscious inborn Puritan ideas. 
But as proof that Goethe's influence was greater, 
and that he was the chief source for her inner life 
and development, we have both, her own words, 
and those of Emerson himself, words which are 
conclusive and leave no doubt whatever.' 

It was well known that Margaret Fuller and 
Emerson were different in character and could not 
agree in their doctrines, religious as well as philo- 
sophical. Emerson was preeminendy a thmker. 
He placed his greatest emphasis upon the intellect, 
often to the exclusion of the other faculties of the 
inner hfe. His was chiefly a life of thought, and 
not of feeling, and doubdess, therefore, he often 
seemed to his contemporaries as austere as some 
of his Puritan ancestors. All this was true despite 
his intellectuality and dissent from all traditional, 
formal church creeds. He seldom came into a 
genuine heart-to-heart touch with his fellow beings 

'Cf. Chapter II above, pp. 52 f-. *3 *• 



136 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

or experienced any real glow of the emotional 
side of his nature. This fact explains the severe 
criticism which he now and then hurled against 
Goethe. Goethe was too human for him, and laid 
too much stress upon the emotional and material 
side of man's nature to please him. Living thus 
largely the life of an ascetic, a life based primarily 
upon the Intellect, and still holding somewhat 
closely In practice to the traditional Puritan church 
doctrines, Emerson naturally distrusted, and often 
disdained, anything that had to do with the emo- 
tions of the heart and the natural inclinations of 
human nature. Its presence repelled him so that 
he did not look for any reason why the author may 
have put It there. He could, therefore, not un- 
derstand that Goethe, In taking note of this part of 
human nature, meant to give the emotions and 
passions a healthy development, meant to refine 
them and bring them, as Margaret Fuller has so 
beautifully expressed It, *'Into sympathy with his 
highest thought," Instead of trying to "crucify" 
them, as the traditional church had long at- 
tempted to do. Emerson did not see this until 
later In life. He saw only that Goethe treated of 
something which he considered Immodest and 
immoral, and therefore writes to Carlyle : "The 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 137 

Puritan In me accepts no apology for bad morals 
in such as he." ^ 

Margaret Fuller calls Emerson's philosophy 
the "white light," to distinguish It from the rosy 
light and glow of feeling expressed in the morning 
and evening skies. Margaret Fuller lived an In- 
tense life, full of glow and feeling, as well as" 
thought, — *'VIel denken, mehr empfinden," * as 
Goethe puts It.** She believed that to think was 
only a part of life. To feel and to act were to her 
just as Important. She had little sympathy with 
confining her joys to "mental ecstacies" such as 
Emerson's chiefly were. "Is it not nobler and 
truer," she wrote to W. H. Channing In 1842, "to 
live than to think ?^ . . . Really to feel the glow 
of action, without Its weariness, what heaven it 
must be!"^ "She and Mr. Emerson met," says 
Caroline H. Dall, "like Pyramus and Thisbe, a 
blank wall between. With Mr. Alcott she had no 

* Cf. pp. 150 ff. ; also Carlyle-Emerson Correspondence, p. 29. 

* "Think much, feel more." 

** "The thinking person errs especially," says Gcethe, "when 
he inquires after cause and effect; the two together comprise the 
inseparable phenomenon. He who can comprehend that is upon 
the right road to action, to deeds. The genetic process already 
leads us upon better ways, even though we fall short in our at- 
tempt. Spriiche in Prosa, p. 641. 

2 "Gedenke zu leben," — Think to live, Goethe says in one of 
his maxims. 

^ Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, pp. 308-309. 



138 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

patience." ^ Later on In the same work Mrs. Dall 
mentions this same fact again: "E. P. P. [Eliza- 
beth Palmer Peabody, one of Margaret Fuller's 
most Intimate friends] got Into a little maze trying 
to Introduce Margaret and R. W. E. to each other, 
— a consummation which, however devoutly to be 
wished, will never happen!" ^ "While bound to 
each other by mutual esteem and admiration," 
says Mrs. Howe, "Margaret and Mr. Emerson 
were opposltes In natural tendency If not In char- 
acter. While Mr. Emerson never appeared to be 
modified by any change of circumstance, never 
melted nor took fire, but was always and every- 
where himself, the soul of Margaret was subject 
to a glowing passion which raised the temperature 
of the social atmosphere around her. ... A 
priestess of life-glories, she magnified her oflice 
. . . . Mr. Emerson had also a priesthood, but 
of a different order. The calm, severe judgment, 
the unpardoning taste, the deliberations which not 
only preceded but also followed his utterances, 
carried him to a remoteness from the common life 
of common people, and allowed no intermingling 
of this life with his own." ^ 

^Margaret and Her Friends, p. 13. 

^Ibid., p. 118 f. 

* Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 84 f. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 139 

Nothing characterizes better the difference be- 
tween the Puritan spiritualist and the pupil of 
Goethe's broad humanity than the following pas- 
sage by the reporter of the "Conversations:" 

"Mr. E. only served to display her powers. 
With his sturdy reiteration of his uncompromising 
idealism, his absolute denial of the fact of human 
nature, he gave her opportunity and excitement 
to unfold and Illustrate her realism and acceptance 
of conditions. . . . She proceeds In her search 
after the unity of things, the divine harmony,* 
not by exclusion, as Mr. E. does, but by compre- 
hension, — and so, no poorest, saddest spirit, but 
she will lead to hope and faith." ^ 

This last passage Is Important, for Margaret 
Fuller's realism Is exactly the kind In which Goethe 
believed, a realism which, when carefully studied 
and understood, gives an Insight Into life, and 
serves as a foundation for character building. 
Margaret Fuller's cry was "Truth at all hazards 1" 

* Compare Goethe's Tasso : 

"Die letzten Enden aller Dinge will 

Sein Geist zusammenf assen" ; and Faust (I. 11. 382-4) 

"Dass ich erkenne, was die Welt 

Im Innersten zusammenhalt." 

"The final limits of all things 

His soul seeks to <:omprehend," 

"That I might understand what holds the world 

Together within its innermost (parts)." 
^Memoirs, I. 349 f. 



140 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

But, as it was with Goethe, It was *'the Ideal truth, 
which Margaret followed so zealously," ^ a truth 
when expressed, that gave her hearers faith in 
humanity and in themselves, and called out the 
best that was In them. 

Emerson himself gave a faithful description of 
the difference between his character and belief and 
that of Margaret Fuller. "Our moods were very 
different," he says, "and I remember, that, at the 
very time when I, slow and cold, had come fully 
to admire her genius, and was congratulating my- 
self on the solid good understanding that subsisted 
between us, I was surprised with hearing It taxed 
by her with superficiality and halfness. She stig- 
matized our friendship as commercial. It seemed, 
her magnanimity was not met, but I prized her 
only for the thoughts and pictures she brought me ; 
— so many thoughts, so many facts, yesterday, — so 
many to-day; — when there was an end of things 
to tell, the game was up ; that, I did not know, as 
a friend should know, to prize a silence as much 
as a discourse, — and hence a forlorn feeling was 
Inevitable; a poor counting of thoughts, and a tak- 
ing the census of virtues, was the unjust reception 
so much love found. On one occasion, her grief 

* Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 136. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 141 

broke into words like these : 'The religious nature 
remained unknown to you, because it could not 
proclaim itself, but claimed to be divined. The 
deepest soul that approached you was, in your 
eyes, nothing but a magic lantern, always bringing 
out pretty shows of life'." ^ 

Lacking, of course, this truly human warmth 
and glow of the soul, the depth of her Gemiith 
which she had found through Goethe and de- 
manded from all her friends towards herself, 
Emerson could not understand her tone, and 
asked her to explain. ''Let us hold hard to the 
common sense,^' he said to her by letter, "and let 
us speak in the positive degree." "Does water 
meet water?" she asks, half satirically, half in fun, 
in her answer, "no need of wine, sugar, spice, or 
even a soupqon of lemon to remind of a tropical 
climate? I fear me not. Yet, dear positives, be 
lleve me superlatively yours, MARGARET." ^ 

Again she writes to Emerson of what is going 
on in her inner life, — of the change and deepen- 
ing of her nature which was taking place about 
this time (1840). But at the end of the letter 
she asks: "Why do I write thus to one who must 
ever regard the deepest tones of my nature as 

^Memoirs, I. 288. *Ibid., I. 289. 



142 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

those of childish fancy or worldly discontent?" ^ 
At another time she writes two descriptions of the 
Drachenfels, one prose and one poetic, both full 
of feeling, and says: "I had twenty minds to send 
it [the poetic one] you as a literary curiosity; 
then I thought, this might destroy relations, and 
I might not be able to be calm and chip marble 
with you any more, if I talked to you in magnet- 
ism and music." - 

Emerson, slow, cool, and collected as ever, 
reasons over all these matters and finally reaches 
the following conclusions as to her character: 
*'Her nature was so large and receptive, so sym- 
pathetic, ... so womanly in her understanding. 
. . . He-r heart was underneath her intellectual- 
ness, her mind was reverent, her spirit devout." ^ 
Nevertheless "She was vexed at a want of sym- 
pathy on my part," * and, "in short, Margaret 
often loses herself in sentimentalism. . . . Her 
integrity was perfect, and she was led and fol- 
lowed by love, and was really bent on truth, but 
too indulgent to the meteors of her fancy." '^ 

The truth is that Emerson, the abstract, "cool" 
thinker, never really penetrated into the deepest 

^Memoirs, I. 291. ^Ibid., p. 230. ^Ibid., p. 316. 

*Ibid., p. 308. "Ibid., I. 280. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 143 

sources of at least one great aspect of her charac- 
ter and wonderful personality. By his very 
make-up he could not understand this side of her 
nature, namely, the part that feeling played in 
her life, nearly so well as those who owed their 
own Inner development to her. 

From these passages It is perfectly clear that 
Emerson was never her "spiritual father," and 
that he never exercised on her inner life anything 
like an overpowering Influence, but that she had 
a personality distinctly different from his, and 
that the doctrine In which she believed, and which 
she acted out In life, was altogether unlike his. 
The fundamental thought in her doctrine was, 
as in that of Goethe, the harmonious development 
of the whole being, the heart as well as the mind. 
In the spiritualistic doctrines of Emerson and his 
fellow Transcendentallsts, as in Puritanism and 
Unitarlanism, the emotional and truly human 
side of character was badly neglected, and re- 
mained, for that reason, largely undeveloped. 

One is struck, in taking a broad and compre- 
hensive view of Margaret Fuller's philosophical 
and religious doctrines, by the truth of what James 
Freeman Clarke said of her: ''She knew her 
thoughts as we know each other's faces; and 



144 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

opinions, with most of us so vague, shadowy, and 
shifting, were in her mind substantial and distinct 
realities. . . . No sophist could pass on her a 
counterfeit piece of Intellectual money. . . . This 
gave a comprehensive quality to her mind most 
Imposing and convincing, as It enabled her to show 
the one Truth, or the one Law, manifesting Itself 
In such various phenomena. Add to this her pro- 
found faith In truth, which made her a Realist 
of that order that thoughts to her were things." ^ 
It Is this realism, developed In Margaret Fuller 
under Goethe's Influence, which Mrs. Howe seems 
to have In mind when she writes of her: "Her 
sense was solid, and her meaning clear and 
worthy." ^ "Whilst she embellished the mo- 
ment," says Emerson, "her conversation had the 
merit of being solid and true." ^ Certainly this 
seems to be true: that the terms and definitions 
applied to Transcendental, such as "lost In the 
clouds," "transcending common-sense," "out of 
touch with real practical life," "dreamy" do not 
well fit her. 

From all these passages combined. It is per- 
fectly evident that Margaret Fuller was not a 

^Memoirs, I. 113. 

^ Howe, Margaret Fuller, p. 85. 

^Memoirs, I. 312. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 145 

Transcendentallst In the accepted sense of the 
word, that she saw the difference between their 
convictions and hers clearly, and rejected their 
doctrines. Even the Idea of an objective religion, 
a church that had Its existence anywhere else than 
In the human heart, was to her, the outspoken 
Individualist, Inconceivable; though from her 
Credo It Is evident that she felt no hostility toward 
religious systems or creeds.^ Like Goethe and 
Schiller, she believed that out of our own Inner 
being, out of the Inner heart and self, are deter- 
mined the highest laws for Individual growth and 
action, and not from any principle or law that may 
be Imposed upon us by anything that has Its exist- 
ence outside of our being, whether religion or 
philosophy. *'Only give the soul freedom and 
room enough to grow," she says, "and It will 
grow from Its own center." ' It was her convic- 
tion that we must ultimately turn to the highest 
Instincts of our Inner souls for the divine source 
of our spiritual life,* and that the possibility of 

^ See Appendix, p. 256. 

^Reminiscences of Ednah Doiv Cheney, p. 207. 

*In his poem, Schone Individualitdt, Schiller says: 
"Einig sollst du zwar sein, doch eines nicht rait dem Ganzen. 
Durch die Vernunft bist du eins, einig mit ihm durch das Herz. 
Stirarae des Ganzen ist deine Vernunft, dein Herz bist du selber: 
Wohl dir, wenn die Vernunft immer im Herzen dir wohnt." 
"A unit indeed you should be, but not one with the All. 



146 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

a perfectly developed and rounded out life lay 
within our own human nature, which she con- 
sidered divine. 

To claim still that Margaret Fuller was a Tran- 
scendentalist, after reading from her own writings 
and her chief biographers, all the evidence of her 
close relation to Goethe, her "Master,'' her 
"parent," as she calls him, would be almost to 
claim that Goethe, too, was a New England 
Transcendentalist. 

In concluding this chapter and passing an esti- 
mate on Margaret Fuller's philosophy of life and 
her religious convictions, nothing better, nor more 
authentic can be said than that which is recorded 
by those whom she helped to a larger and fuller 
life. "Her nature," said Mrs. Ednah Dow 
Cheney, more than forty years after Margaret 
Fuller's death, "was Intuitive and enthusiastic, but 
balanced by her clear perception of the value of 
limitations, and guided by her absolute fidelity 
to truth. . . . Her method of thought was to 
seize the heart of the subject and develop from 
within. Nature readily yielded to her its spiritual 

By your reason you are a unit, [and] in unity with the All 

through the heart. 
Voice of the All is your reason, your heart you are yourself. 
Happy are you, if reason always dwells in your heart." 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 147 

meaning. . . . Her religion was as broad and 
all-embracing as her thought. I do not know 
the record of any spiritual life more absolutely 
free from theological narrowness, and yet more 
truly religious. The depth of her life, her joy 
and faith in living, was the secret of her marvelous 
power over others." ^ James Freeman Clarke, 
deeply religious, and the sincerest of Christians, 
said of her doctrine. "It was religious, because 
it recognized something divine, infinite, imper- 
ishable in the human soul,— something divine in 
outward nature and providence, by which the soul 
Is led along its appointed way." ' And Emerson 
records the words of one of the reporters of her 
"Conversations" In Boston: "What is so noble 
Is, that her realism is transparent with idea,— 
her human nature Is the germ of a divine life." ' 

* Reminiscences of Ednah Doiv Cheney, p. 209. 
^Memoirs, I. i33- 
'Ibid., p. 349 f. 



Chapter IV 
DEFENCE OF GOETHE 

Margaret Fuller may justly lay claim to the 
title of being the strongest and most effective de- 
fender Goethe had in America. Of course, to ap- 
preciate her work fully we must judge what 
she says of Goethe in the light of her own time 
and surroundings; only then can we comprehend 
how much she did for his proper understanding 
and appreciation in America. Goethe's writings, 
as works of art, were little appreciated in this 
country at the time, except by a very narrow circle 
of the select few. Because of an almost general 
misunderstanding of Goethe's principles, and 
sometimes a lack of knowledge on the part of the 
critics of what Goethe really taught and pro- 
claimed, much severe and unjust criticism was 
heaped upon his works. Not only did Margaret 
Fuller have to counteract the influence of such 
criticisms, but also to combat a narrow and very 
bitter religious prejudice against him. Even more, 
she had to defend him against influences that came 

148 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 149 

over from Germany Itself, through such men as 
Wolfgang Menzel. What made it all the harder 
for Margaret Fuller, and therefore entitles her to 
all the more credit, was that a residue of the same 
Calvinistic ideals and prejudices which swayed 
nearly all New England at the time was born and 
bred in her, and continually struggled to express 
itself. 

What great odds Margaret Fuller was forced 
to encounter in upholding Goethe and his princi- 
ples, and how severe the prejudices and attacks 
against him must have been, may be seen when It 
is remembered that even such men of power and 
Influence as Emerson and Longfellow attacked the 
great German poet with whole broadsides of ad- 
verse criticism, during the early part of their 
careers. 

Emerson writes to Carlyle, November, 1834: 
"Far, far better seems to me the unpopularity of 
this Philosophical Poem (shall I call it?) [Sartor 
Resartus] than the adulation that followed your 
eminent friend, Goethe. With him I am becom- 
ing better acquainted, but mine must be a qualified 
admiration. It Is a singular piece of good nature 
In you to apotheosize him. I cannot but regard it 
as his misfortune, with conspicuous bad influence 



150 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

on his genius, — that velvet life he led. What 
incongruity for genius, whose fit ornaments and 
reliefs are poverty and hatred, to repose fifty 
years on chairs of state! And what a pity that 
his Duke did not cut off his head to save him from 
the mean end (forgive) of retiring from the muni- 
cipal incense 'to arrange tastefully his gifts and 
medals.' Then the Puritan In me accepts no 
apology for bad morals in such 3.S he. , . . A 
certain wonderful friend of mine said that 'a false 
priest is the falsest of false things.' But what 
makes a priest? A cassock? . . . 

"Then to write luxuriously is not the same as to 
live so, but a new and worse offense. It implies 
an Intellectual defect also, the not perceiving that 
the present corrupt condition of human nature 
(which condition this harlot muse helps to per- 
petuate) is a temporary or artificial state." 

Carlyle answers, February 3, 1835. "Your 
objections to Goethe are very natural, and even 
bring you nearer me: nevertheless, I am by no 
means sure that it were not your wisdom, at this 
moment, to set about learning the German Lan- 
guage, with a view towards studying him mainly. 
. . . His is the only healthy mind . . . that I 
have discovered in Europe for long generations; 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 151 

it was he that first convincingly proclaimed to me 
(convincingly, for I saw it done) : Behold, even 
in this scandalous Sceptico-Epicurean generation, 
when all is gone but hunger and cant, it is still 
possible that Man be a Man." "I suspect," Car- 
lyle concludes, "you yet know only Goethe, the 
Heathen (Ethnic) ; but you will know Goethe, 
the Christian, by and by, and like that one far 
better." ' 

At this earnest solicitation of Carlyle Emerson 
studied Goethe and gained a much better opinion 
of him; yet he writes in his journal of 1836, that 
he has been reading "our wise, but sensual, loved 
and hated Goethe." ^ 

In his article on Modern Literature in the 
Dial, Emerson asks : "What shall we think of that 
absence of the moral sentiment [in Goethe], that 
singular equivalence to him of good and evil in 
action, which discredit his compositions to the 
pure?" Of Wilhelm Meister he says: "We are 
never lifted above ourselves, we are not trans- 
ported out of the dominion of the senses, or 
cheered with an infinite tenderness, or armed with 
a grand trust." Emerson did not like Goethe's 

^ Carlyle-Emerson Correspondence, Vol. I. 29 ff., 39 f. 
'Emerson's JVorks, Boston and New York, 1903. Vol. IV. pp. 
368 ff. Notes by Edward W^, Emerson. 



152 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

hero, Wllhelm Melster; because he "has so many 
weaknesses and Impurities and keeps such bad 
company." ^ "Goethe then must be set down as 
. . . the poet of limitations, ... of this world, 
and not of religion and hope, ... in short, of 
prose, not of poetry." ^ 

In his volume on Representative Men, published 
1850, Emerson praises Goethe for his profound 
knowledge of human nature and for collecting 
and embracing within himself and his works the 
spirit of the age in all its tendencies and com- 
plexity. "He was the soul of his century," Emer- 
son writes. "He said the best things about nature 
that ever were said." Yet in the end he finds the 
same faults with the poet as before, claiming 
that: "He is incapable of a self-surrender to the 
moral sentiment. . . . Goethe can never be dear 
to men. His is not even the devotion to pure 
truth; but to truth for the sake of culture." ^ 
Much as Emerson learned to admire the great 
genius of the German poet, still, writes Edward 
W. Emerson, the editor of Emerson's works, 



^Emerson's Works, Boston and New York, 1903. Vol IV. pp. 
265 f. Notes by Edward W. Emerson. 

^Ibid., Vol. XII. pp. 328 ff. 

* Emerson's Works, Vol IV. pp. 260 f., 270. Notes by Edward 
W. Emerson. 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 153 

"Always in his praise of Goethe there was a 
reserve, a protest spoken or unspoken." * 

Longfellow, too, in his "Hyperion," gives us 
his view of Goethe, which Is really the gist of his 
lectures on him In Harvard College during the 
summer of 1838. 

Though, like Emerson, he admired Goethe for 
a great many admirable qualities, he says: "His 
philosophy Is the old Ethnic philosophy. . . . 
What I most object to In the old gentleman Is his 
sensuality." He mentions then, as Immoral, the 
Roman Elegies, and "that monstrous book, the 
Elective Affinities,'^ and further says, "The artist 
shows his character In the choice of his subject. 
Goethe never sculptured an Apollo nor painted a 
Madonna. He gives us only sinful Magdalens 
and rampant Fauns." ~ 

Even greater was the enmity of the public 
against Goethe, so great In fact that even Emerson 

takes the part of Goethe against them. " 

pleased the people of Boston," writes Emerson 
(1844), "by railing at Goethe In his Phi Beta 
Kappa oration because Goethe was not a New 
England Calvlnlst." ^ 

^ Emerson's .Works, Vol IV. p. 371. 
^Hy^perion, pp. 142 f., New York. 
^ Emerson's Works, Vol. IV. p. 371. Notes, 



154 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

These are a few expressions of the sentiment in 
the midst of which Margaret Fuller lived, and 
the conditions under which she labored in her 
efforts to encourage a more general study of 
Goethe and his doctrines in New England. 

Margaret Fuller has left us two records of the 
arguments which she used In her masterful defense 
of Goethe against those who were assailing him. 
In the preface to her translation of Eckermann's 
Conversation with Goethe she answers all the 
charges brought against the poet by her country- 
men and the English critics; and in her first article 
in the Dial she defends him against Wolfgang 
Menzel, whose criticism of Goethe Professor 
Felton of Harvard College had translated.* 

In the preface to her translation of Ecker- 
mann's Conversations with Goethe, she says: *'It 
may not be amiss to give some intimation (more 
my present limits do not permit) of the grounds 
on which Goethe Is, to myself, an object of 
peculiar interest and constant study. 

*'I hear him much assailed by those among us 

* Since Margaret Fuller's Works are very often inaccessible 
to the reader, the quotations from them in the present and the 
following chapter are frequently given at some length. More- 
over, it was thought best, in order to gain a full appreciation of 
her criticisms, to collect and present the main thoughts, with but 
few comments, just as they stand in her various works. 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 155 

who know hlnij some few in his own language, 
but most from translations of 'Wilhelm Meister' 
and Taust.' These, his two great works, in which 
he proposed to himself the enigma of life, and 
solved it after his own fashion, were, naturally 
enough, selected, in preference to others, for trans- 
lating. This was, for all but the translators, un- 
fortunate, because these two, above all others, 
require a knowledge of the circumstances and 
character from which they rose, to ascertain their 
scope and tendency." ^ 

"The great movement in German literature" 
Margaret Fuller says, ''Is too recent to be duly 
estimated, even by those most interested to ex- 
amine it;" because she thought, there was still 
"the feeling of fresh creative life at work there." 
Any conclusive criticism upon this Important liter- 
ary period and upon its greatest literary genius, 
Goethe, was therefore somewhat premature then, 
Goethe having passed away only a few years 
before. With these critics "who declare, from an 
occasional peep through a spy-glass," what they 
see and think of the great poet, she has no 
patience. She wishes him judged from the great 
historical standpoint, — the only one which we 

^ Preface to Eckermann's Conversations ivith Goethe, x f. 



156 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

consider valid today. "Would these hasty critics," 
she writes, "but recollect how long it was before 
similar movements in Italy, Spain, France, and 
England, found their proper place in the thoughts 
of other nations, they would not think fifty years' 
investigation too much for fifty years' growth, 
and would no longer provoke the Ire of those 
who are lighting their tapers at the German torch. 
. . . The objections usually made, . . . are such 
as would answer themselves on a more thorough 
acquaintance with the subject. . . . The objec- 
tions, so far as I know them, may be resolved 
into these classes: 

He is not a Christian; 
He is not an Idealist; 
He is not a Democrat; 
He is not Schiller.'" 

H we add to this list "He Is not an orthodox 
churchman," we have all the arguments brought 
against him In America. Of Goethe's Christianity 
she says: "He sought always for unity. ... A 
creative activity was his law. He was far from 
Insensible to spiritual beauty in the human char- 
acter. He has embodied it in Its finest forms; 

* Preface to Eckermann's Conversatioris nvith Goethe, xii flF. 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 157 

but he merely put It In, what seemed feo him, its 
place, as the key-stone of the social arch, and 
paints neither that nor any other state with 
partiality. Such was his creed as a writer. *I 
palnt,^ he seems to say, 'what I have seen; 
choose from it, or take It all, as you will or can.' 
. . . His God was rather the creative and uphold- 
ing than the paternal spirit; his religion, that all 
his powers must be unfolded; his faith, 'that 
nature could not dispense with Immortality.' In 
the most trying occasions of his life, he referred 
to *the great Idea of Duty which alone can hold 
us upright.' . . . Those who cannot draw their 
moral for themselves [from his works] had best 
leave his books alone; they require the power as 
life does. This advantage only does he give, or 
Intend to give you, of looking at life brought Into 
a compass convenient to your eye, by a great ob- 
server and artist, and at times when you can look 
uninterrupted by action, undisturbed by passion. 

"He was not an Idealist: that Is to say, he 
thought not so much of what might be as what is. 
He did not seek to alter or exalt Nature, but 
merely to select from her rich stores." This 
answers one of Emerson's chief reproaches against 
Goethe; namely, that he was too much a poet of 



158 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

the Actual and stuck too close to Mother Earth. 
Goethe paints life as he found it, but selected 
from its rich stores whatever served best his pur- 
pose, which was never a low one. This also 
answers Margaret Fuller's own criticism further 
on in the preface (p. xxi) that Goethe "had the 
artist's eye, and the artist's hand, but not the 
artist's love of structure." Goethe was more than 
an artist. He was a combination of poet and 
philosopher such as the world had notseenbefore; 
his real object, as she, as also Emerson, later, 
justly says, was truth, not art alone. "I am well 
satisfied that 'he went the way that God and 
Nature called him,' " Margaret Fuller correctly 
concludes. 

"He was an Aristocrat." This she admits, but 
adds: "Yet a minority is needed to keep these 
liberals in check, and make them pause upon their 
measures long enough to know what they are 
doing; for, as yet, the caldron of liberty has 
shown a constant disposition to overboil. The 
artist and literary man is naturally thrown into 
this body, by his need of repose, and a firm ground 
to work in his proper way. Certainly Goethe by 
nature belonged on that side; and no one, who 
can understand the structure of his mind, instead 



DEFExNCE OF GOETHE 159 

of judging him by his outward relations, will 
impute to him unworthy motives. . . . To be 
sincere, consistent, and Intelligent In what one 
believes, Is what Is important; a higher power 
takes care of the rest. 

"In reply to those who object to him that he Is 
not Schiller, It may be remarked that Shakespeare 
was not Milton, nor Arlosto Tasso. It was, 
Indeed, unnecessary that there should be two 
Schillers, one being sufficient to represent a certain 
class of thoughts and opinions. It would be well 
If the admirers of Schiller would learn from him 
to admire and profit by his friend and coadjutor, 
as he himself did. 

"Schiller was wise enough to judge each nature 
by Its own law, great enough to understand great- 
ness of an order different from his own. He was 
too well aware of the value of the more beautiful 
existences to quarrel with the rose for not being a 
lily, the eagle for not being a swan. 

"I am not fanatical as to the benefits to be 
derived from the study of German literature," 
she says, "I am not a blind admirer of Goethe." 
"I suppose. Indeed, that there lie the life and 
learning of the century [in the German litera- 
ture], and that he who does not go to those 



i6o MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

sources can have no just notion of the workings 
of the spirit In the European world these last fifty 
years or more." Margaret Fuller states frankly 
the faults she found with Goethe and German 
literature in general, for she did find some, — ^yet 
justly says, "No one who has a higher aim in 
reading German books than mere amusement; no 
one who knows what It is to become acquainted 
with a literature as literature. In its history of 
mutual influences, diverse yet harmonious tenden- 
cies, can leave aside either Schiller or Goethe; but 
far, far least the latter. It would be leaving 
Augustus Cassar out of the history of Rome be- 
cause he was not Brutus. 

"Having now confessed to what Goethe is not,'* 
she further writes, "I would indicate, as briefly as 
possible, what, to me, he is. 

"Most valuable as a means of balancing the 
judgment and suggesting thought from his antag- 
onism to the spirit of the age. . . . 

"As one of the finest lyric poets of modern 
times. Bards are also prophets; and woe to those 
who refuse to hear the singer, to tender him the 
golden cup of homage. Their punishment is in 
their fault. 

"As the best writer of the German language, 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE i6i 

who has availed himself of all Its advantages of 
richness and flexibility, and added to them a 
degree of lightness, grace, clearness, and precision, 
beyond any other writer of his time. . . . 

"As a critic, on art and literature, not to be sur- 
passed In independence, fairness, powers of 
sympathy, and largeness of view. 

''Could I omit to study this eighty years' journal 
of my parent's life, traced from so commanding 
a position, by so sure a hand, and one Informed 
by so keen and cultivated an eye? Where else 
shall we find so large a mirror, or one with so 
finely decorated a frame?" 

"As a mind which has known how to reconcile 
individuality of character with universality of 
thought; a mind which, whatever be Its faults, 
ruled and relied on itself alone [Selbst Leben]; 
a nature which knew its law, and revolved on its 
proper axis, unrepenting, never bustling, always 
active, never stagnant, always calm." ^ 

That some of the objections which Margaret 
Fuller expresses In this same article against 
Goethe, along with her praise of him, were not 
deeply felt and had "method" In them, Is indi- 
cated by the following sentence with which she 

* Preface to Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe, xii ff. 



i62 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

concludes her objections: **I flatter myself I 
have now found fault enough to prove me a 
worthy critic, after the usual fashion." The 
fact that she calls him her parent outweighs all 
the faults she could find. Surely there can be no 
more influential person in our lives and esteem 
than a parent. 

In her masterly defense of Goethe in the Dial^ 
entitled MenzeFs View of Goethe y she says: 
"Menzel's view of Goethe Is that of a Philistine, 
in the least opprobrious sense of the term. It is 
one which has long been applied In Germany to 
petty cavillers and Incompetent critics. I do not 
wish to convey a sense so disrespectful In speak- 
ing of Menzel. He has a vigorous and brilliant 
mind, and a wide, though Imperfect, culture. He 
is a man of talent, but talent cannot comprehend 
genius. He judges of Goethe as a Philistine, 
Inasmuch as he does not enter into Canaan, and 
read the prophet by the light of his own law, 
but looks at him from without, and tries him by 
a rule beneath which he never lived. That there 
was something Menzel saw; what that something 
was not he saw, but what It was he could not see; 
none could see; It was something to be felt and 
known at the time of its apparition, but the clear 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 163 

sight of it was reserved to a day far enough re- 
moved from its sphere to get a commanding point 
of view. Has that day come? A little while ago 
It seemed so; certain features of Goethe's person- 
ality, certain results of his tendency, had become 
so manifest. But as the plants he planted mature, 
they shed a new seed for a yet more noble 
growth. A wider experience, a deeper insight, 
make rejected words come true, and bring a more 
refined perception of meaning already discerned. 
Like all his elder brothers of the elect band, the 
forlorn hope of humanity, he obliges us to live 
and grow, that we may walk by his side; vainly 
we strive to leave him behind in some niche of 
the hall of our ancestors; a few steps onward and 
we find him again, of yet serener eye and more 
towering mien than on his other pedestal. Former 
measurements of his size have, like the girdle 
bound' by the nymphs round the infant Apollo, 
only served to make him outgrow the unworthy 
compass. The still rising sun, with Its broader 
light, shows us it is not yet noon. In him is soon 
perceived a prophet of our own age, as well as a 
representative of his own; and we doubt whether 
the revolutions of the century be not required to 
interpret the quiet depths of his Saga, 



i64 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

*'Sure it Is that none has yet found Goethe's 
place, as sure that none can claim to be his peer, 
who has not some time, ay, and for a long time, 
been his pupil ! ^ 

*'Yet much truth has been spoken of him in 
detail, some by Menzel, but in so superficial a 
spirit, and with so narrow a view of its bearings, 
as to have all the effect of falsehood. Such 
denials of the crown can only fix it more firmly 
on the head of the 'Old Heathen.' To such the 
best answer may be given in the words of Bettina 
Brentano : 'The others criticise thy works ; I only 
know that they lead us on and on till we live in 
them.' And thus will all criticism end in making 
men and women read these works, and 'on and 
on,' till they forget whether the author be a 
patriot or a moralist, in the deep humanity of 
the thought, the breathing nature of the scene. 
While words they have accepted with immediate 
approval fade from memory, these oft-denied 
words of keen, cold truth return with ever new 
force and significance. 

"Men should be true, wise, beautiful, pure, and 
aspiring. This man was true and wise, capable 
of all things. . . . Can we, in a world where so 

^Life IVithout and Life Within, pp. 13 flF. 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 165 

few men have in any degree redeemed their in- 
heritance, neglect a nature so rich and so mani- 
festly progressive? 

^'Historically considered, Goethe needs no 
apology. His so-called faults fitted him all the 
better for the part he had to play. In cool pos- 
session of his wide-ranging genius, he taught the 
imagination of Germany, that the highest flight 
should be associated with the steady sweep and 
undazzled eye of the eagle. Was he too much 
the connoisseur, did he attach too great an im- 
portance to the cultivation of taste, where just 
then German literature so much needed to be 
refined, polished, and harmonized? Was he too 
sceptical, too much an experimentalist, — how else 
could he have formed himself to be the keenest, 
and, at the same time, most nearly universal of 
observers, teaching theologians, philosophers, 
and patriots that nature comprehends them all, 
commands them all, and that no one development 
of life must exclude the rest? ... If you want 
a moral enthusiast, is not there Schiller? If 
piety, of purest, mystic sweetness, who but 
Novalis? Exuberant sentiment, that treasures 
each withered leaf in a tender breast, look to your 
Richter. Would you have men to find plausible 



i66 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

meaning for the deepest enigma, or to hang up 
each map of literature, well painted and dotted 
on Its proper roller, — there are the Schlegels. 
Men of ideas were numerous as migratory crows 
In autumn, and JacobI wrote the heart Into philos- 
ophy, as well as he could. Who could fill 
Goethe's place to Germany, and to the world, of 
which she Is now the teacher? His much-reviled 
aristocratic turn was at that time a reconciling 
element. It Is plain why he was what he was, 
for his country and his age." 

In answer to Menzel's accusation that Goethe 
was not patriotic, she writes. " 'His mother was 
surprised, that when his brother and chief play- 
mate, Jacob, died he shed no tear. . . . After- 
wards, when his mother asked whether he had 
not loved his brother, he ran Into his room and 
brought from under his bed a bundle of papers, 
all written over, and said he had done all this for 
Jacob.' 

"Even so in later years, had he been asked If 
he had not loved his country and his fellow-men, 
he would not have answered by tears and vows, 
but pointed to his works. . . . 

*'Most men. In judging another man ask. Did 
he live up to our standard? But to me it seems 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 167 

desirable to ask rather, Did he live up to his 
own? ... If we can find out how much was 
given him, we are told, In a pure evangellum, to 
judge thereby how much shall be required. 

"Now, Goethe has given us both his own stand- 
ard and the way to apply It. 'To appreciate any 
man, learn first what object he proposed to him- 
self; next, what degree of earnestness he showed 
with regard to attaining that object.' 

''And this Is part of his hymn for man made in 
the divine image, 'The Godlike.' 

"Hail to the Unknown, the 
Higher Being 
Felt within us! 

There can none but man 
Perform the impossible. 
He understandeth, 
Chooseth, and judgeth; 
He can impart to the 
Moment duration. 

Let noble man 

Be helpful and good; 

Ever creating 

The Right and the Useful; 

Type of those loftier 

Beings of whom the heart whispers." 



i68 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

"This standard is high enough. It is what 
every man should express in action, the poet in 
music." Margaret Fuller believes, however, that 
Goethe, though the greatest and most sublime 
poet of the modern world, could have attained a 
yet higher level in his works. She believes that 
his expressions of the ideal are "glimpses of the 
highest spirituality", "blue sky seen through 
chinks in a roof which should never have been 
builded." "He has used life to excess," she says. 
"He Is too rich for his nobleness, too judicious 
for his inspiration, too humanly wise for his 
divine mission. He might have been a priest; 
he is only a sage [who. In the modern conception 
of the term, is more than merely a priest; since 
he should not be wise only, but also point the 
way, as Goethe did, to a larger life]." 

In answer to Menzel's and the multitude's 
accusation that Goethe was a debauchee and an 
Epicurean, which was also one of the chief accu- 
sations brought against him by many of her New 
England contemporaries, she asks: "Did Goethe 
value the present too much? It was not for the 
Epicurean aim of pleasure, but for use. He, in 
this, was but an instance of reaction In an age of 
painful doubt and restless striving as to the 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 169 

future. Was his private life stained by profli- 
gacy? That far largest portion of his life, which 
is ours, and which is expressed in his works, is 
an unbroken series of efforts to develop the higher 
elements of our being." ^ 

In Woman in the Nineteenth Century Marga- 
ret Fuller speaks of heroes, poets, and artists 
' 'with whom the habitual life tended to expand the 
soul, deepen and vary the experience, refine the 
perceptions, and immortalize the hopes and dreams 
of youth." That she had Goethe in mind here, 
as her chief example, there can be little doubt. 
"They were persons," she says, ''who never lost 
their originality of character, nor spontaneity of 
action. Their impulses proceeded from a fulness 
and certainty of character that made it impossi- 
ble they should doubt or repent, whatever the 
results of their actions might be. 

"They could not repent, in matters little or 
great, because they felt that their actions were a 
sincere exposition of the wants of their souls. 
Their impulsiveness was not the restless fever of 
one who must change his place somehow or some- 
whither, but the waves of a tide, which might be 
swelled to vehemence by the action of the winds 

^Life Without and Life Within, pp. 13 ff. 



170 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

or the influence of an attractive orb, but was none 
the less subject to fixed laws. 

"A character which does not lose its freedom 
of motion and impulse by contact with the world, 
grows with Its years more richly creative, more 
freshly individual. It Is a character governed by 
a principle of Its own, and not by rules taken from 
other men's experience ; and therefore It Is that 

'Age cannot wither them, nor custom stale 
Their infinite variety.' 

"Like violins, they gain by age, and the spirit 
of him who discourseth through them most excel- 
lent music, 

*LIke wine well kept and long, 
Heady, nor harsh, nor strong, 
With each succeeding year is quaffed 
A richer, purer, mellower draught.' " ^ 

Menzel claimed that at a time when the whole 
German nation was wrought up by conflicting 
Ideas and political strife Goethe was serene and 
calm, apparently Indifferent to the calamity about 
him, continuing, seemingly undisturbed, his work 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 257. 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 171 

as It lay mapped out before him every day. "His 
serenity alone, in such a time of scepticism and 
sorrowful seeking," Margaret Fuller says, in an- 
swer to this accusation, ''gives him a claim to all 
our study. See how he rides at anchor, lordly, 
rich in freight, every white sail ready to be 
unfurled at a moment's warning! And it must 
be a very slight survey which can confound this 
calm self-trust with selfish indifference of temper- 
ament. . . . He never halts, never repines, never 
is puzzled, like other men; that tranquillity, full 
of life, that ceaseless but graceful motion, 'without 
haste, without rest,' for which we all are striving, 
he has attained. And is not his love of the noblest 
kind? Reverence the highest, have patience with 
the lowest. Let this day's performance of the 
meanest duty be thy religion. Are the stars too 
distant, pick up that pebble that lies at thy foot, 
and from it learn the all. Go out like Saul, the 
son of Kish, look earnestly after the meanest of 
thy father's goods, and a kingdom shall be brought 
thee. The least act of pure self-renunciation hal- 
lows, for the moment, all within its sphere. The 
philosopher may mislead, the devil tempt, yet 
innocence, though wounded and bleeding as It 
goes, must reach at last the holy city. The power 



172 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

of sustaining himself and guiding others rewards 
man sufficiently for the longest apprenticeship. Is 
not this lore the noblest? . . . He was true, for 
he knew that nothing can be false to him who is 
true, and that to genius nature has pledged her 
protection." ^ 

*'The greatness of Goethe," she says, "his na- 
tion has felt for more than half a century; the 
world Is beginning to feel it, but time may not 
yet have ripened his critic; especially as the grand 
historical standing point is the only one from 
which a comprehensive view could be taken of 
him." ^ 

In thus concluding the preface to the Trans- 
lation of Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe, 
she gives expression to the most important truth 
she found, in fact, the only criterion by which we 
may judge the real worth of any great man to his 
age, or to the world: the historical point of view. 
In arriving at this point of view, Margaret Fuller 
not only surpassed Carlyle, but also preceded by 
decades the contemporary critics of Goethe in 
Germany, who could not escape from the baleful 
influence of Hegel's Philosophy. And we may 

^Life Without and Life Within, pp. 20 ff. ^ 

^ Preface to Eckermann's Conversations iviih Goethe, xxii f. 



DEFENCE OF GOETHE 173 

not claim too much by saying that she was led to 
take this historical attitude by her thorough study 
of Goethe himself. There can be no doubt that 
had she been permitted to finish her proposed 
Life of Goethe, she would have written It In the 
true historical spirit, which her best criticisms of 
him breathe. Certainly, we can say with Fred- 
erick H. Hedge, one of her Intimate friends and 
teachers, that what she did write of the great 
German poet, taken all In all. Is "one of the best 
things she has written", and "is one of the best 
criticisms extant of Goethe." ^ 

^Memoirs, I. p. 96. 



Chapter V 

INTERPRETATION, CRITICISM AND 
TRANSLATION OF GOETHE 

Margaret Fuller was more than merely a diligent 
student of Goethe upon whose inner life his full 
power was brought to bear with wondrous effect. 
She was also an unusually clear-sighted critic and 
appreciative interpreter of his works — both from 
a philosophical and an artistic standpoint. The 
study of German in America during the fourth 
and fifth decades of the last century was still in 
its infancy. It is true there were a few men 
living in and about Cambridge and Boston at 
that time who understood Goethe, and were very 
fair interpreters of his works. But none of them 
comprehended or interpreted him nearly so well 
as Margaret Fuller did ; nor were any so active and 
aggressive as she in disseminating German ideas 
and principles. Just such an influential and ap- 
preciative critic of German, as she, was much 
needed in America at the time. The slow progress 

174 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 175 

In the study of German writers here was partly 
due, at least, to the very fact that readers did not 
understand the true mission to humanity of these 
great thinkers, nor could they appreciate the 
beauty of their works. 

Most of the misinterpretations and lack of 
appreciation of German works — and those of 
Goethe especially — were due, however, to a strong 
religious prejudice. Goethe came with a new 
evangel, and this evangel did not coincide with 
the Puritan religious ideal. Goethe came with 
his doctrine of "God-Nature," or to phrase it a 
little differently, ''Sinnlich-Sittlich," in which he, 
as was stated in a preceding chapter, took cog- 
nizance of one aspect- — the sensuous side — In the 
development of character, whichhadbeenneglected 
by Puritanism and the religious sects that had 
their origin in Puritanism, namely, the Unitarians 
and the Transcendentallsts. Because of his in- 
herited Puritan Ideas the New Englander believed 
that this side of human nature was of the "Evil 
One." Naturally, therefore, Goethe was con- 
demned as a Pagan, and his works as Immoral; 
since much was found In them that pertained to the 
sensual nature. Margaret Fuller, as we have 
seen, had, to a high degree, freed herself from 



176 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

these same Puritan ideas, and had received a full 
development of her whole nature and inner life 
through Goethe. She knew exactly how a New 
Englander felt, and could therefore, make 
Goethe's doctrine appeal to him better than a 
native-born German could do. Hence, nobody 
was better adapted to become Goethe's inter- 
preter among her countrymen than she. 

The work of Goethe that held the uppermost 
place in Margaret Fuller's estimation was, of 
course, Faust, that "work without a parallel,'* as 
she called it, "one of those few originals which 
have their laws within themselves, and should 
always be discussed singly." ^ Of this great 
drama she says in her second article on Goethe in 
the Dial: " 'Faust' contains the great idea of his 
[Goethe's] life, as indeed there is but one great 
poetic idea possible to man — the progress of a 
soul through the various forms of existence.^ 

"All his other works, whatever their miraculous 
beauty of execution, are mere chapters to this 
poem, illustrative of particular points. . . .^ 

^ Life Without and Life Within, p. 133. 

'See also Margaret Fuller's Translation of Eckermann's 
Conversations ivith Goethe, Introd. p. x. 
'^ Life Without and Life Witnin, p. 35, 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 177 

"The fiercest passions are not so dangerous foes 
to the soul as the cold scepticism of the under- 
standing. The Jewish demon assailed the man 
of Uz with physical ills, the Lucifer of the middle 
ages tempted his passions; but the Mephistopheles 
of the eighteenth century bade the finite strive 
to compass the infinite, and the Intellect attempt 
to solve all the problems of the soul. 

"This path Faust had taken: It Is that of 
modern necromancy. Not willing to grow Into 
God by a steady worship of a life, men would 
enforce his presence by a spell; not willing to 
learn his existence by the slow processes of their 
own, they strive to bind it in a word, that they may 
wear It about the neck as a talisman. 

"Faust, bent on reaching the center of the uni- 
verse through the Intellect alone, naturally, after 
a length of trial, which has prevented the har- 
monious unfolding of his nature, falls Into de- 
spair. He has striven for one object, and that 
object eludes him. Returning upon himself, he 
finds large tracts of his nature lying waste and 
cheerless. He Is too noble for apathy, too wise 
for vulgar content with the animal enjoyments of 
life. Yet the thirst he has been so many years 
Increasing Is not to be borne. Give me, he cries, 



178 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

but a drop of water to cool my burning tongue. 
Yet in casting himself with a wild recklessness 
upon the impulses of his nature yet untried, there 
is disbelief that any thing short of the All can 
satisfy the immortal spirit. His first attempt was 
noble, though mistaken, and under the saving in- 
fluence of it, he makes the compact, whose 
condition cheats the fiend at last." 

Margaret Fuller then quotes the eight lines 
from Faust, i. 1694 ff., containing the compact 
which she thus translates rather freely: 

"Canst thou by falsehood or by flattery 
Make me one moment with myself at peace, 
Cheat me into tranquillity? Come then 
And welcome, life's last day. 
Make me but to the moment say, 
O fly not yet, thou art so fair, 
Then let me perish, etc." 

"But this condition," she continues, **is never 
fulfilled. Faust cannot be content with sensuality, 
with the charlatanry of ambition, nor with 
riches." ^ "Faust became a wiser if not a nobler 
being." ^ "His heart never becomes callous, nor 

* Life Without and Life Within, p. 36 ff. 
'Ibid., p. 34. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 179 

his moral and Intellectual perceptions obtuse. He 
is saved at last. 

"With the progress of an Individual soul 19 
shadowed forth that of the soul of the age; be- 
ginning in intellectual scepticism; sinking Into 
license ; cheating itself with dreams of perfect bliss, 
to be at once attained by means no surer than a 
spurious paper currency; longing itself back from 
conflict between the spirit and the flesh, induced 
by Christianity, to the Greek era with its har- 
monious development of body and mind; striving 
to re-embody the loved phantom of classical 
beauty in the heroism of the middle age; flying 
from the Byron despair of those who die because 
they cannot soar without wings, to schemes how- 
ever narrow, of practical utility, — redeemed at 
last through mercy alone.'' ^ 

"The Seeker represents the Spirit of the Age. 
He [Faust] never sinned save by yielding, and 
yet he was emphatically saved by grace. It Is 
diflicult to see what Goethe meant until he got 
to the Tower of the Middle Ages. That made 
all clear." ^ 

The character mentioned by Margaret Fuller 

^ Life Without and Life Within, pp. 37 f. 
^Margaret and Her Friends, pp. 131 f. 



i8o MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

again and again is Gretchen. Two short passages 
will suffice here to show how Margaret Fuller 
thought of this charming, unfortunate girl and 
how she Interpreted her character. "Gretchen, In 
the golden cloud, Is raised above all past delusions, 
worthy to redeem and upbear the wise man who 
stumbled into the pit of error while searching for 
truth." ^ "Gretchen, by her Innocence of heart, 
and the resolute aversion to the powers of dark- 
ness, which her mind In its most shattered state, 
does not forget, redeems not only her own soul, 
but that of her erring lover." ' * 

Most interesting is Margaret Fuller's criticism 
of Mephistopheles. Hardly anything which has 
been said or written since characterizes better the 
demon within our inner nature and the various 
forms in which he has appeared to man, and the 
deep meaning underlying these several forms, than 
these two paragraphs : 

"The demon of the man of Uz; the facetious 
familiar of Luther, cracking nuts on the bed- 
posts, put to flight by hurling an ink-horn; the 
haughty Satan of Milton, whose force of will Is 
a match for all but Omnipotence; the sorrowful 

^ Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 228. 

'Preface to Conversations ivith Goethe, p. xiii. 

* For further discussions of Gretchen, see below p. 209. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS i8i 

satire of Byron's temper; the cold polished Irony 
of Goethe's Mephlstopheles; all mark with admir- 
able precision the state of the age and the mental 
position of the writer. Man tells his aspirations 
In his God; but In his demon he shows his depth 
of experience, and casts light Into the cavern 
through which he worked his course up to the 
cheerful day." 

". . . If we compare the Mephlstopheles and 
Lucifer with the buskined devil of the mob, the 
goblin with the cloven foot and tail, we realize 
the vast development of Inward life. What a step 
from slavish fears of Injury or outward retribution 
to representations, like these, of Inward dangers, 
the pitfalls and fearful dens within our nature, 
and he who thoughtfully sees the danger begins 
already to subdue." ^ 

''The second part of Faust Is full of meaning, 
resplendent with beauty; but It Is rather an ap- 
pendix to the first part than a fulfillment of its 
promise. The world, remembering the powerful 
stamp of individual feeling, universal indeed in 
Its application, but Individual In its life, which 
had conquered all its scruples In the first part, 
was vexed to find. Instead of the man Faust, the 

'Dial, Vol. Ill, p. 258. 



i82 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

spirit of the age, — discontented with the shadowy 
manifestation of truths it longed to embrace, and, 
above all, disappointed that the author no longer 
met us face to face, or riveted the ear by its deep 
tones of grief and resolve." ^ 

In answer to this criticism so common among 
many of the readers of the second part of Faust, 
she says : "When the world shall have got rid of 
the still overpowering influence of the first part, 
it will be seen that the fundamental idea is never 
lost sight of in the second. The change is that 
Goethe, though the same thinker, is no longer the 
same person." ^ 

"Goethe borrowed from the book of Job the 
grand thought of permitted temptation . . . [He] 
has shown the benefits of deepening individual 
consciousness . . . [and] left his unfinished leaves 
as they fell from his life. By leading a soul 
through various processes to final redemption, 
we are made to expect an indication of the 
steps through which man passes to spiritual 
purification." ^ 

Wilhelm Meister, the work so little appreciated 
and so much abused in New England during Mar- 

^Life Without and Life Within, p. 38. 

'Ibid., p. 38. 

' Dial, Vol. Ill, pp. 248 f. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 183 

garet Fuller*s life, had a charm for her only 
second to that of Faust. Here, In this great work, 
she found Goethe's philosophy of the development 
of human character in its clearest outlines and 
most complete form. She looked at this work, 
therefore, as one of the greatest educational works 
that the world had ever produced. 

"The continuation of Faust in the practical 
sense of the education of man," she says, "is to 
be found in Wilhelm Melster." ^ "Faust and 
Wilhelm Meister [are] so easily taken captive 
by the present. I admit the wisdom of this course, 
where, as in Wilhelm Meister, the aim Is to 
suggest the various ways in which the whole nature 
may be educated through the experiences of this 
world." "Renunciation, the power of sacrificing 
the temporary for the permanent," she writes 
again, "is the leading idea in one of his great 
works, Wilhelm Meister." ^ This Is the great 
doctrine which Wilhelm Meister had taught her 
and which she tried to Impress upon others. 

Continuing in the Dial the comparison between 
Faust and Wilhelm Meister, she says: "Here 
[in Wilhelm Meister'] we see the change by 
strongest contrast. The main spring of action is 

* Life Without and Life Within, p. 38. 

' Preface to Conversations <with Goethe, p. xiix. 



i84 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

no longer the Impassioned and noble seeker [as 
In Faust], but a disciple of circumstance, whose 
most marked characteristic Is a taste for virtue 
and knowledge. Wllhelm certainly prefers these 
conditions of existence to their opposltes, but there 
Is nothing so decided In his character as to prevent 
his turning a clear eye on every part of the 
variegated world-scene which the writer wished 
to place before us. 

"To see all till he knows all sufficiently to put 
objects Into their relations, then to concentrate 
his powers and use his knowledge under recog- 
nized conditions, — such Is the progress of man 
from Apprentice to Master. 

". . . 'TIs pity that the volumes of the Wan- 
derjahre have not been translated entire, as well 
as those of the Lehrjahre, for many, who have 
read the latter only, fancy that Wllhelm becomes 
a master In that work. Far from It; he has but just 
become conscious of the higher powers that have 
ceaselessly been weaving his fate. Far from being 
as yet a Master, he but now begins to be a Knower. 
In the Wanderjahre we find him gradually learn- 
ing the duties of citizenship, and hardening into 
manhood, by applying what he has learned for 
himself to the education of his child. He con- 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 185 

verses on equal terms with the wise and benefi- 
cent; he Is no longer duped and played with 
for his good, but met directly mind to mind. 

^'Wllhelm Is a miaster when he can command 
his actions, yet keep his mind always open to new 
means of knowledge; when he has looked at vari- 
ous ways of living, various forms of religion and 
of character, till he has learned to be tolerant of 
all, discerning of good in all; when the astrono- 
mer imparts to his equal ear his highest thoughts, 
and the poor cottager seeks his aid as a patron 
and counsellor. 

"To be capable of all duties, limited by none, 
with an open eye, a skilful and ready hand, an 
assured step, a mind deep, calm, foreseeing with- 
out anxiety, hopeful without the aid of illusion, — 
such is the ripe state of manhood. This attained, 
the great soul should still seek and labor, but 
strive and battle never more. 

''The reason for Goethe's choosing so negative 
a character as Wllhelm, and leading him through 
scenes of vulgarity and low vice, would be obvious 
enough to a person of any depth of thought, 
even If he himself had not announced It. He thus 
obtained room to paint life as It really is, and 
bring forward those slides in the magic lantern 



i86 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

which are always known to exist, though they 
may not be spoken of to ears polite. 

"Wilhelm cannot abide In tradition, nor do as 
his fathers did before him, merely for the sake of 
money or a standing In society. The stage, here 
an emblem of the Ideal life as It gleams before 
unpractised eyes, offerls, he fancies, opportunity 
for a life of thought as distinguished from one 
of routine. Here, no longer the simple citizen, 
but Man, all Men, he will rightly take upon him- 
self the different aspects of life, till poet-wise, he 
shall have learned them all. 

"No doubt the attraction of the stage to young 
persons of a vulgar character Is merely the bril- 
liancy of Its trappings; but to Wllhelm, as to 
Goethe, It was this poetic freedom and dally sug- 
gestion which seemed likely to offer such an 
agreeable studio In the green room. 

"But the Ideal must be rooted In the real, else 
the poet's life degenerates Into buffoonery or vice. 
Wllhelm finds the characters formed by this 
would-be Ideal existence more despicable than 
those which grew up on the track, dusty and 
bustling and dull as It had seemed, of common 
life. He Is prepared by disappointment for a 
higher ambition. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 187 

"In the house of the count he finds genuine 
elegance, genuine sentiment, but not sustained by 
wisdom, or a devotion to important objects. This 
love, this life. Is also Inadequate. 

"Now, with Teresa he sees the blessings of 
domestic peace. He sees a mind sufficient for 
Itself, finding employment and education In the 
perfect economy of a little world. The lesson 
Is pertinent to the state of mind In which his 
former experiences have left him, as Indeed our 
deepest lore Is won from reaction. But a sud- 
den change of scene Introduces him to the society 
of the sage and learned uncle, the sage and benefi- 
cent Natalia. Here he finds the same virtues as 
with Teresa, and enlightened by a larger 
wisdom. . . . 

"The Count of Thorane, a man of powerful 
character, who made a deep Impression on his 
childhood, was, he says, 'reverenced by me as an 
uncle.' And the Ideal wise man of this common 
life epic stands before us as 'The Uncle.' 

"After seeing the working of just views in the 
establishment of the uncle, learning piety from 
the Confessions of a Beautiful Soul, and religious 
beneficence from the beautiful life of Natalia, 
Wilhelm is deemed worthy of admission to the 



1 88 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

society of the Illumlnati, that is, those who have 
pierced the secret of life, and know what it is 
to be and to do. 

''Here he finds the scroll of his life 'drawn with 
large, sharp strokes,' that is, these truly wise read 
his character for him, and 'mind and destiny are 
but two names for one idea.' 

"He now knows enough to enter on the Wan- 
der] ahre. 

"Goethe always represents the highest prin- 
ciple in the feminine form. Woman is the 
Minerva, man the Mars. As in the Faust, the 
purity of Gretchen, resisting the demon always, 
even after all her faults, is announced to have 
saved her soul to heaven; and in the second part 
she appears, not only redeemed herself, but by 
her innocence and forgiving tenderness hallowed 
to redeem the being who had injured her. 

"So in the Meister, these women hover around 
the narrative, each embodying the spirit of the 
scene. The frail Philina, graceful, though con- 
temptible, represents the degradation incident to 
an attempt at leading an exclusively poetic life. 
Mignon, gift divine as ever the Muse bestowed on 
the passionate heart of man, with her soft, mysteri- 
ous inspiration, her pining for perpetual youth, 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 189 

represents the high desire that leads to this mis- 
take, as Aurelia, the desire for excitement; Teresa, 
practical wisdom, gentle tranquillity, which 
seem most desirable after the Aurelia glare. Of 
the beautiful soul and Natalia we have already 
spoken. The former embodies what was sug- 
gested to Goethe by the most spiritual person he 
knew In youth — Mademoiselle von Klettenberg, 
over whom, as he said, in her Invalid loneliness 
the Holy Ghost brooded like a dove. 

"Entering on the Wanderjahre, Wllhelm be- 
comes acquainted with another woman, who seems 
the complement of all the former, and represents 
the Idea which Is to guide and mould him In the 
realization of all the past experience. 

"This person, long before we see her, is an- 
nounced in various ways as a ruling power. She 
is the last hope in cases of difficulty, and, though 
an Invalid, and living In absolute retirement^ Is 
consulted by her connections and acquaintances 
as an unerring judge In all their affairs. 

"All things tend toward her as a center; she 
knows all, governs all, but never goes forth from 
herself. 

"Wllhelm at last visits her. He finds her infirm 
in body, but equal to all she has to do. Charity 



190 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

and counsel to men who need her are her business, 
astronomy her pleasure. 

''After a while, Wllhelm ascertains from the 
Astronomer, her companion, what he had before 
suspected, that she really belongs to the solar 
system, and only appears on earth to give men a 
feeling of the planetary harmony. From her 
youth up, says the Astronomer, till she knew me, 
though all recognized In her an unfolding of the 
highest moral and intellectual qualities, she was 
supposed to be sick at her times of clear vision. 
When her thoughts were not In the heavens, she 
returned and acted in obedience to them on earth; 
she was then said to be well. 

"When the Astronomer had observed her long 
enough, he confirmed her inward consciousness of 
a separate existence and peculiar union with the 
heavenly bodies. 

"Her picture is painted with many delicate 
traits, and a gradual preparation leads the reader 
to acknowledge the truth; but, even In the slight 
indication here given, who does not recognize thee, 
divine Philosophy, sure as the planetary orbits, 
and Inexhaustible as the fountain of light, crown- 
ing the faithful seeker at last with the privilege 
to possess his own soul. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 191 

**In all that is said of Macaria, we recognize 
that no thought Is too religious for the mind of 
Goethe. It was indeed so." ^ "His two highest 
female characters, Natalia and Macaria, are 
representations of beneficence and heavenly 
wisdom.'' ^ 

*'WIlhelm, at the school of the Three Rev- 
erences, thinks out what can be done for man In 
his temporal relations. He learns to practice 
moderation, and even painful renunciation. The 
book ends, simply Indicating what the course of 
his life will be, by making him perform an act 
of kindness, with good judgment and at the right 
moment. 

"Surely the simple soberness of Goethe should 
please at least those who style themselves, pre- 
eminently, people of common sense." ^ 

Margaret Fuller is correct In saying that in 
Werther we have an expression of a part of 
Goethe's own feelings, an epoch In his develop- 
ment. Werther expresses truthfully certain 
phases through which the great poet himself 
passed in his growth as an individual and a genius. 

^Liie Without and Life Within, pp. 38 ff. 

'Translation of Conversations nvith Goethe, Preface, p. xlv. 

' Life Without and Life Within, p. 43. 



192 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

"He was driven," Margaret Fuller writes in 
describing the personal experiences and disappoint- 
ments through which Goethe passed previous to 
writing this work, "from the severity of study into 
the world, and then again drawn back, many 
times in the course of his crowded youth. Both 
the world and the study he used with unceasing 
ardor. . . . He was very social, and continually 
perturbed by his social sympathies. He was de- 
ficient both in outward self-possession and mental 
self-trust [quoting Goethe's own words] 'either 
too volatile or too infatuated^'' Herder's and 
Merck's influences, she said, were also brought to 
bear on him, and not always In a manner to cheer 
the young poet or give him confidence in his own 
productions. "His youth," she continues, "was 
as sympathetic and Impetuous as any on record." 

"The effect of all this outward pressure on 
the poet is recorded in Werther — a production 
that he afterwards undervalued, and to which he 
even felt positive aversion. It was natural that 
this should be. In the calm air of the cultivated 
plain he attained, the remembrance of the miasma 
of sentimentality was odious to him. Yet senti- 
mentality is but sentiment diseased, which to be 
cured must be patiently observed by the wise 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 193 

physician; so are the morbid desire and despair 
of Werther, the sickness of a soul aspiring to 
a purer, freer state, but mistaking the way." ' 
"Werther . . . must die because life was not 
wide enough and rich enough in love for him." ^ 
"The best or the worst occasion in man's life 
is precisely that misused in Werther, when he 
longs for more love, more freedom, and a larger 
development of genius than the limitations of this 
terrene sphere permit. Sad is it indeed If, persist- 
ing to grasp too much at once, he lose all, as 
Werther did. He must accept limitation, must 
consent to do his work in time, must let his affec- 
tions be baffled by the barriers of convention. Tan- 
talus-like, he makes this world a Tartarus, or, 
like Hercules, rises in fires to heaven, according 
as he knows how to Interpret his lot. But he 
must only use, not adopt It. The boundaries of 
the man must never be confounded with the des- 
tiny of the soul. If he does not decline his destiny, 
as Werther did, it is his honor to have felt its 
unfitness for his eternal scope. He was born for 
wings; he is held to walk in leading-strings; 
nothing lower than faith must make him resigned, 
and only in hope should he find content — a hope 

* Life Without and Life Within, pp. 29 f. 
'Ibid., p. 34. 



194 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

not of some slight improvement In his own condi- 
tion or that of other men, but a hope justified by 
the divine justice, which is bound In due time to 
satisfy every want of his nature. 

"Schiller's great command is, *Keep true to the 
dream of thy youth'. The great problem is how 
to make the dream real, through the exercise of 
the waking will. 

"This was not exactly the problem Goethe tried 
to solve. To do somewhat, became too impor- 
tant. ... It is not the knowledge of what might 
be, but what is, that forms us." 

"Werther ... Is characterized by a fervid 
eloquence of Italian glow, which betrays a part 
of his character almost lost sight of in the quiet 
transparency of his later productions, and may 
give us some Idea of the mental conflicts through 
which he passed to manhood. 

"The acting out the mystery into life, the calm- 
ness of survey, and the passlonateness of feeling, 
above all the ironical baffling at the end, and want 
of point to a tale got up with such an eye to effect 
as he goes along, mark well the man that was to 
be. Even so did he demand in Werther; even 
so resolutely open the door In the first part of 
Faust; even so seem to play with himself and 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 195 

his contemporaries In the second part of Faust and 
Wllhelm Meister. 

"Yet was he deeply earnest In his play, not 
for men, but for himself. To himself as a part 
of nature It was Important to grow, to lift his 
head to the light. In nature he had all confidence ; 
for man, as a part of nature, Infinite hope; but In 
him as an Individual will, seemingly, not much 
trust at the earliest age." ^ 

So deeply Interested was Margaret Fuller in 
Goethe's Tasso that she translated It Into English 
verse. "In Tasso," she writes, "Goethe has de- 
scribed the position of the poetical mind in its 
prose relations." It is,, she believes, another 
confession or expression of what Goethe, as a 
poet, felt, himself.^ 

"Goethe had not from nature that character of 
self-reliance and self-control in which he so long 
appeared to the world. It was wholly acquired, 
and so highly valued because he was conscious 
of the opposite tendency. He was by nature as 
impetuous, though not as tender, as Tasso, and 
the disadvantage at which this constantly placed 
him was keenly felt by a mind made to appreciate 

^ Life Without and Life Within, pp. 29 ff. 
- Ibid., p. 28. 



196 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

the subtlest harmonies In all relations. Therefore 
was It that when he at last cast anchor, he was so 
reluctant again to trust himself to wave and 
breeze." ^ 

Of the harrowing feelings that must rend a 
sympathetic and tender poetic heart, like that of 
Tasso, Margaret Fuller says: "Let me add as 
the best criticism, for the hearing of those that 
will hear, one of those matchless scenes in which 
Goethe represents the sudden blazes of eloquence, 
the fitful shadings of mood, and the exquisite 
sensitiveness to all Influences that made the weak- 
ness and the power of Tasso. It also presents 
the relation that probably existed between the 
princess and the poet, with more truth than their 
confessors could discern it, for the poet is the only 
priest In the secrets of the heart." ^ 

Margaret Fuller, to give us an adequate Idea 
of the beauty and feeling of the play, or rather to 
let the play speak for itself In these matters, quotes, 
In her article on Goethe In the Dial, two scenes 
(Act II, Scenes i and 2) from her own trans- 
lation of Tasso. In these two scenes Tasso gives 
vent to the deepest poetic feelings that arise from 
the conflicts between his Idealistic, poetic inner 

' Life Without and Life Within, pp. 28 f. ' Dial, January, 1842. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 197 

nature, and the unfeeling, realistic world outside ; 
and finally, based upon the encouraging words of 
the Princess, he ends in the second scene with the 
most glowing hopes and ecstacy of soul, a com- 
plete abandonment to his poetic feelings. 

The sufferings of Tasso always appealed deeply 
to Margaret Fuller, and she writes: "Beethoven! 
Tasso ! It is well to think of you ! What suffer- 
ings from baseness, from coldness! How rare 
and momentary were the flashes of joy, of confi- 
dence and tenderness, in these noblest lives ! Yet 
could not their genius be repressed. The Eternal 
Justice lives. O Father, teach the spirit the 
meaning of sorrow, and light up the generous 
fires of love and hope and faith." ^ 

It is ''a novelty," Margaret Fuller believes, 
"to see the mind of a poet analysed and portrayed 
by another, who, however, shared the inspiration 
only of his subject, saved from his weakness by 
that superb balance of character in which Goethe 
surpasses even Milton." This "very celebrated 
production of the first German writer" with Its 
"beautiful finish of style" she calls a "many-toned 
lyre on which the poet originally melodized his 
inspired conceptions." "The central situation of 

^Memoirs, II. 105. 



198 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Tasso," she says, in conclusion, is "the manner 
in which his companions draw him out, and are 
in turn drawn out by him, the mingled generosity 
and worldliness of the Realist Antonio, the mix- 
ture of taste, feeling, and unconscious selfishness 
in Alphonso, the more delicate, but not less de- 
cided painting of the two Leonoras, the gradual 
but irresistible force by which the catastrophe 
is drawn down upon us, concur to make this drama 
a model of Art, that art which Goethe worshipped 
ever after he had exhaled his mental boyhood 
in Werther." ' 

Of Egmont and Goetz von Berlichingen Mar- 
garet Fuller also speaks, calling the former "the 
generous free liver," ^ and finding in the latter 
a striking and beautiful picture of ideal home 
relations between husband and wife, "that com- 
munity of inward life, that perfect esteem," which 
enables Goetz von Berlichingen to say " *Whom 
God loves, to him gives He such a wife'." ^ 

The Elective Affinities and Iphigenie were to 
Margaret Fuller the "two surpassingly beautiful 
works" of Goethe. For these she expresses the 

^ Art, Literature and the Drama, pp. 355 f. 
~ Life Without and Life Within, p. 60. 
^ Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 80. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 199 

greatest praise and most glowing admiration. In 
them *'Is shown most distinctly," she says, "the 
clear perception which was In Goethe's better na- 
ture, of the beauty of that steadfastness, of that 
singleness and simple melody of soul, which he 
too much sacrificed to become 'the many-sided 
One\" 

What a storm of bitter criticism and protest 
was hurled against the first of these works by 
those who held to Puritan traditions, and conse- 
quently rejected everything that In any way per- 
tained to the sensuous nature, Is seen from Mar- 
garet Fuller's own criticism of these works. She 
was practically alone in her large circle In seeing 
the true meaning and higher beauty of this charm- 
ing work. How great must have been her Influ- 
ence In correcting the mistaken Idea current 
concerning this work, and In saving It from the 
bad reputation that had been given It. In her 
enthusiasm she justly called It "Moral" and 
"Religious even to piety In Its spirit." 

"Not Werther," she says, "not the Nouvelle 
Helolse, have been assailed with such a storm of 
Indignation as the first-named of these works, on 
the score of gross Immorality. 

"The reason probably Is the subject; any discus- 



200 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

slon of the validity of the marriage vow making 
society tremble to its foundation; and, secondly, 
the cold manner in which it is done. All that is 
in the book would be bearable to most minds if 
the writer had had less the air of a spectator, and 
had larded his work here and there with ejacu- 
lations of horror and surprise. 

"These declarations of sentiment on the part 
of the author seem to be required by the majority 
of readers, in order to an interpretation of his 
purpose, as sixthly, seventhly, and eighthly were, 
in an old fashioned sermon, to rouse the audience 
to a perception of the method made use of by the 
preacher. 

"But it has always seemed to me that those 
who need not such helps to their discriminating 
faculties, but read a work so thoroughly as to ap- 
prehend its whole scope and tendency, rather than 
hear what the author says it means, will regard 
the Elective Affinities as a work especially what 
is called moral in its outward effect, and religious 
even to piety in its spirit. The mental aberrations 
of the consorts from their plighted faith, though 
in one case never indulged, and though in the 
other no veil of sophistry is cast over the weakness 
of passion, but all that is felt expressed with the 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 201 

openness of one who desires to legitimate what 
he feels, are punished by terrible griefs and^ a 
fatal catastrophe. Ottilia, that being of exquisite 
purity, with intellect and character so harmonized 
in feminine beauty, as they never before were 
found in any portrait of woman painted by the 
hand of man, perishes, on finding she has been 
breathed on by unhallowed passion, and led to 
err even by her ignorant wishes against what is 
held sacred." ' "The virgin Ottilia . . . immo- 
lates herself to avoid the possibility of spotting 
her thoughts with passion." " 

"It pains me," she says in a letter, "to part with 
Ottilia. I wish we could learn books, as we do 
pieces of music, and repeat them, in the author's 
order, when taking a solitary walk. But, now, 
if I set out with an Ottilia, this wicked fairy 
association conjures up such crowds of less lovely 
companions, that I often cease to feel the influence 
of the elect one." ^ 

"I am thinking," she writes again, to a minis- 
terial friend, "how I omitted to talk a volume to 
you about the 'Elective Affinities.' Now I shall 
never say half of it, for which I, on my own ac- 

' Life Without and Life Within, pp. 48 f- . 
-Conversations ivith Goethe, Introd., p. xiv. 
^Memoirs, I. 117- 



202 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

count, am sorry. ... I am now going to dream 
of your sermon, and of Ottilia's china-asters.'' ^ 

"The only personage whom we do not pity 
is Edward, for he is the only one who stifles the 
voice of conscience. 

"There is indeed a sadness, as of an irresistible 
fatality, brooding over the whole. It seems as 
if only a ray of angelic truth could have enabled 
these men to walk wisely in this twilight, at first 
so soft and alluring, then deepening into blind 
horror. 

"But if no such ray came to prevent their 
earthly errors, it seems to point heavenward in the 
saintly sweetness, of Ottilia. Her nature, too 
fair for vice, too finely wrought even for error, 
comes lonely, intense, and pale, like the evening 
star on the cold, wintry night. It tells of other 
worlds, where the meaning of such strange pas- 
sages as this must be read to those faithful and 
pure like her, victims perishing in the green gar- 
lands of a spotless youth to atone for the unworthi- 
ness of others. 

"An unspeakable pathos is felt from the minut- 
est trait of this character, and deepens with every 
new study of it. Not even in Shakespeare have 

^Memoirs, I. n8. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 203 

I so felt the organizing power of genius. Through 
dead words I find the least gestures of this person, 
stamping themselves on my memory, betraying 
to the heart the secret of her life, which she her- 
self, like all these divine beings, knew not. I feel 
myself familiarized with all beings of her order. 
I see not only what she was, but what she might 
have been, and live with her in yet untrodden 
realms. 

''Here is the glorious privilege of a form known 
only in the world of genius. There is on it no 
stain of usage or calculation to dull our sense 
of its immeasurable life. What in our daily walk, 
mid common faces and common places, fleets 
across us at moments from glances of the eye, or 
tones of the voice, is felt from the whole being 
of one of these children of genius. 

"This precious gem is set in a ring complete In 
its enamel. I cannot hope to express my sense 
of the beauty of this book as a work of art. 1 
would not attempt it if I had elsewhere met any 
testimony to the same. The perfect picture, 
always before the mind, of the chateau, the moss 
hut, the park, the garden, the lake, with its boat 
and the landing beneath the platan trees; the 
gradual manner in which both localities and per- 



204 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

sons grow upon us, more living than life, inasmuch 
as we are, unconsciously, kept at our best tem- 
perature by the atmosphere of genius, and thereby 
more delicate In our perceptions than amid our 
customary fogs ; the gentle unfolding of the central 
thought, as a flower In the morning sun; then 
the conclusion, rising like a cloud, first soft and 
white, but darkening as it comes, till with a sudden 
wind It bursts above our heads; the ease with 
which we everywhere find points of view all 
different, yet all bearing on the same circle, for 
though we feel every hour new worlds, still before 
our eye lie the same objects, new, yet the same 
unchangeable, yet always changing their aspects 
as we proceed, till at last we find v/e ourselves 
have transferred the circle, and know all we over- 
looked at first, — these things are worthy of our 
highest admiration. 

"For myself, I never felt so completely that 
very thing which genius should always make us 
feel — that I was in its circle, and could not get 
out till its spell was done, and its last spirit per- 
mitted to depart. I was not carried away. 
Instructed, delighted more than by other works, 
but I was there, living there, whether as the platan 
tree, or the architect, or any other observing part 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 205 

of the scene. The personages live too intensely 
to let us live in them; they draw around them- 
selves circles within the circle; we can only see 
them close, not be themselves. 

"Others, it would seem, on closing the book, 
exclaim, 'What an immoral book!' I well re- 
member my own thought, 'It is a work of art!' 
At last I understood that world within a world, 
that ripest fruit of human nature, v/hich is called 
art. With each perusal of the book my surprise 
and delight at this wonderful fulfillment of 
design grew." ^ 

Iphigenie, Margaret Fuller calls, "a work 
beyond the possibility of negation; a work where 
a religious meaning not only pierces but enfolds 
the whole; a work as admirable in art, still higher 
in significance, more single in expression - [than 
the Elective Affinities].'' 

Since this drama was not well known in 
America, Margaret Fuller gives an outline of it 
and translates some of the most beautiful passages 
into English, yet how far short any outline or 
criticism falls in giving the reader an idea of the 
beauties of this admirable play, Margaret Fuller 

^ Life Without and Life Within, pp. 49 flf. 
^Ibid., p. 51. 



2o6 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

herself felt. "These are the words and thoughts, 
she says, "but how give an Idea of the sweet sim- 
plicity of expression In the original, where every 
word has the grace and softness of a flower 
petal?" ^ 

Iphlgenle tells the story of her race "in a 
way that makes us feel as If that most famous 
tragedy had never before found a voice, so simple, 
so fresh In Its naivete Is the recital." The first 
two acts contain "scenes of the most delicate 
workmanship. . . . between the light-hearted 
Pylades, full of worldly resource and ready ten- 
derness, and the suffering Orestes, of far nobler, 
indeed heroic nature, but less fit for the day and 
more for the ages . . . The characters of both 
are brought out with great skill, and the nature 
of the bond between 'the butterfly and the dark 
flower,' distinctly shown In few words . . . 

"The scenes go on more and more full of 
breathing beauty. The lovely joy of Iphlgenle, 
the meditative softness with which the religiously 
educated mind perpetually draws the Inference 
from the most agitating events, Impress us more 
and more. At last the hour of trial comes . . . 

"But, O, the step before all this can be 

^ Life Without and Life Within, p. 53. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 207 

obtained; — to deceive Thoas, a savage and a 
tyrant indeed, but long her protector, — in his 
barbarous fashion, her benefactor! How can 
she buy life, happiness, or even the safety of those 
dear ones at such a price? . . . 

'Then follows the sublime song of the Parcae, 
well known through translations. But Iphlgenle 
is not a victim of fate, for she listens steadfastly 
to the god in her breast. Her lips are Incapable 
of subterfuge. She obeys her own heart, tells 
all to the king, calls up his better nature, wins, 
hallows, and purifies all around her, till the heaven- 
prepared way is cleared by the obedient child 
of heaven, and the great trespass of Tantalus 
cancelled by a woman's reliance on the voice of 
her innocent soul." ' "Iphlgenle, by her stead- 
fast truth, hallows all about her, and disarms 
the powers of hell." ^ 

But most powerfully and charmingly Inter- 
preted are Goethe's feminine characters In 
Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, which contains her masterly argument and 
plea for a higher, freer womanhood. These 
charming portraits are left, for the most part, In 

"^ Life Without and Life Within, pp. 53 ff. 
^Preface to Conversations luith Goethe, p. xiv. 



2o8 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

just the order and setting In which they stand In 
the work mentioned above; for thus they appear 
In the best light, and exactly as Margaret Fuller 
presented them to her readers. 

"Goethe, proceeding on his own track," she 
writes, "elevating the human being. In the most 
Imperfect states of society, by continual efforts 
at self-culture, takes as good care of women as 
of men. His mother, the bold, gay Frau Aja, 
with such playful freedom of nature; the wise 
and gentle maiden, known In his youth, over whose 
sickly solitude 'the Holy Ghost brooded as a 
dove;' his sister, the intellectual woman par 
excellence,'^ all lent him traits of character for 
his Ideals of womanhood. The same, she thought, 
was true of Goethe's patroness. "In this country 
[America]," she writes, "Is venerated, wherever 
seen, the character which Goethe spoke of as an 
Ideal, which he saw actualized In his friend and 
patroness, the Grand Duchess Amalla : 'The ex- 
cellent woman Is she, who. If the husband dies, 
can be father to the children.* And this If read 
aright, tells a great deal." ^ "LIII," Margaret 
Fuller says, "combined the character of the 
woman of the world with the lyrical sweetness 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. no. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 209 

of the shepherdess, on whose chaste and noble 
breast flowers and gems were equally at home. 
All these had supplied abundant suggestions 
to his [Goethe's] mind, as to the wants and pos- 
sible excellencies of Woman. And from his 
poetic soul grew up forms new and more admir- 
able than life has yet produced, for whom his 
clear eye marked out paths in the future. 

*'In Faust Margaret represents the redeeming 
power, which, at present upholds woman, while 
waiting for a better day. The lovely little girl, 
pure in instinct, ignorant in mind, is misled and 
profaned by man abusing her confidence. To the 
Mater Dolorosa she appeals for aid. It is given 
to the soul, if not against outward sorrow; and 
the maiden, enlightened by her sufferings, refusing 
to receive temporal salvation by the aid of an 
evil power, obtains the eternal In Its stead. 

*Tn the second part, the Intellectual man, after 
all his manifold strivings, owes to the Interposition 
of her whom he had betrayed, his salvation. She 
intercedes, this time, herself a glorified spirit, with 
the Mater Glorlosa. Leonora, too. Is Woman, 
as we see her now, pure, thoughtful, refined by 
much acquaintance with grief." ^ 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 125 f. 



2IO MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

"Iphigenie he speaks of in his journals as his 
'daughter/ and she is the daughter whom a man 
will wish, even if he has chosen his wife from 
very mean motives. She is the virgin, steadfast 
soul, to whom falsehood is more dreadful than 
any other death/* Elsewhere Iphigenie is praised 
as "a tender virgin, ennobled and strengthened 
by sentiment more than intellect; what they call 
a woman par excellence." ^ 

"As Wilhelm [Meister] advances into the 
upward path, he becomes acquainted with better 
forms of Woman, by knowing how to seek, and 
how to prize them when found. For the weak 
and immature man will often admire a superior 
woman, but he will not be able to abide by a 
feeling which is too severe a tax on his habitual 
existence. But, with Wilhelm, the gradation is 
natural, and expresses ascent in the scale of being. 
At first, he finds charm in Mariana and Philina, 
very common forms of feminine character, not 
without redeeming traits, no less than charms, 
but without wisdom or purity. Soon he is attended 
by Mignon, the finest expression ever yet given 
to what I have called the lyrical element in 
Woman. She is a child, but too full grown for 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 422. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 211 

this man; he loves, but cannot follow her; yet 
is the association not without an enduring Influ- 
ence. Poesy has been domesticated In his life; 
and, though he strives to bind down her heaven- 
ward impulse, as art or apothegm, these are only 
the tents, beneath which he may sojourn for a 
while, but which may be easily struck, and carried 
on limitless wanderings." ^ 

Margaret Fuller looked upon MIgnon as a type 
of "the electrical, inspired, lyrical nature," the 
^'prophetic form" of woman "expressive of the 
longing for a state of perfect freedom, pure love;" 
a representative of that type of beings, half 
angelic, whose affections are so pure that they are 
capable of a friendship where selfishness and sex 
play no part whatever; beings characterized by 
the song which MIgnon sings shortly before her 
death, and which Margaret quotes in this con- 
nection. 

"Jene himmlischen Gestalten 
Sie fragen nicht nach Mann und Weib, 
Und kelne Kleider, keine Falten 
Umgeben den verklarten Leib."* 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 127. 

* Yonder heavenly forms 

They ask not whether one be man or woman, 
And no garments, no folds 
Enclose the transfigured body. 



212 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

"She could not remain here, but was translated 
to another air," Margaret Fuller continues. 
"And it may be that the air of this earth will 
never be so tempered that such can bear it long. 
But, while they stay they must bear testimony to 
the truth they are constituted to demand. That 
an era approaches which shall approximate nearer 
to such a temper than any has yet done, there 
are many tokens." ^ 

"Advancing into the region of thought, he 
[Wilhelm Meister] encounters a wise philan- 
thropy in Natalia (instructed, let us observe, by 
an uncle) ; practical judgment and the outward 
economy of life in Theresa; pure devotion in the 
Fair Saint. 

"Further, and last, he comes to the house of 
Macaria, the soul of a star; that is, a pure and 
perfected intelligence embodied in feminine form, 
and the center of a world whose members revolve 
harmoniously around her. She instructs him in 
the archives of a rich human history, and intro- 
duces him to the contemplation of the heavens. 

"From the hours passed by the side of Mariana 
to these with Macaria, is a wide distance for 
human feet to traverse. Nor has Wilhelm 

^ IVoman in the Nineteenth Century^ p. 64. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 213 

traveled so far, seen and suffered so much, In 
vain. He now begins to study how he may aid 
the next generation; he sees objects in harmonious 
arrangement, and from his observations deduces 
precepts by which to guide his course as a teacher 
and a master, 'help-full, comfort-full' . . . 

''In the Macaria, bound with the heavenly 
bodies in fixed revolutions, the center of all rela- 
tions, herself unrelated, he expresses the Minerva 
side of feminine nature. It was not by chance 
that Goethe gave her this name. Macaria, the 
daughter of Hercules, who offered herself as a 
victim for the good of her country, was canonized 
by the Greeks, and worshipped as the Goddess 
of true Felicity. Goethe has embodied this 
Felicity as the serenity that arises from Wisdom, 
a wisdom such as the Jewish wise man venerated, 
alike instructed in the designs of heaven, and the 
methods necessary to carry them Into effect upon 
earth . . . 

"All these women, though we see them In 
relations, we can think of as unrelated. They 
all are very individual, yet seem nowhere re- 
strained. They satisfy for the present, yet arouse 
an Infinite expectation. 

"The economist Theresa, the benevolent Na- 



214 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

talla, the Fair Saint, have chosen a path, but their 
thoughts are not narrowed to It. The functions 
of life to them are not ends, but suggestions. 

"Thus, to them, all things are Important, 
because none Is necessary. Their different char- 
acters have fair play, and each Is beautiful In its 
minute Indications, for nothing Is enforced or 
conventional; but everything, however slight, 
grows from the essential life of the being. 

"MIgnon and Theresa wear male attire when 
they like, and It Is graceful for them to do so, 
while Macaria Is confined to her arm-chair behind 
the green curtain, and the Fair Saint could not 
bear a speck of dust on her robe. 

"All things are In their places In this little 
world, because all Is natural and free, just as 
'there is room for everything out of doors.' Yet 
all Is rounded In by natural harmony, which will 
always arise where Truth and Love are sought 
in the light of Freedom." ^ 

The very fact that Margaret Fuller takes over 
from Goethe, In one of her most Important and 
Influential books, this succession of female char- 
acters as representatives of the highest ideals of 
womanhood. Ideals which she wished her Amerl- 

* Woman in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 127 if. 



CRITICISM OF GOETHE'S WORKS 215 

can sisters to make real In our country, — ail this 
Is proof that she looked upon Goethe, not merely 
as a great poet-artist, who entertains and delights 
us, but as an ethical leader, whose doctrines of 
life and whose ideal types of character, — types 
created by the poet himself — are to be lived out 
in every day life. She was probably the first 
American-born person who saw the great world- 
poet in this light and thus understood his great 
mission to humanity. 

Of Goethe's shorter works Margaret Fuller 
translates the poem Entsagiing, and expresses 
through it her own renunciation. But especially 
did she admire Goethe's fragment Prometheus. 
She mentions this poem in several of her works, 
and translated it in 1838 for a friend. Pro- 
metheus, she thought, inspired us, more than 
anything else, with the courage of a truly liberated 
soul, and with an independence and a passionate 
desire to be a benefit to all humanity,^ even at the 
cost of suffering and sacrifice, — inspired us, in fact, 
with traits just such as this ancient hero, so well 
described by Goethe, had before us. It also 
expressed, she says, an idea of how man might 
become a creator, like God. 

^Memoirs, I. p. 310. 



2i6 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Margaret Fuller's feeling with reference to 
Goethe's poetry has already been mentioned. It 
seemed to her that Goethe's mind had embraced 
the universe. "I am enchanted," she says, "while 
I read. He comprehends every feeling I have 
ever had so perfectly, expresses it so beautifully." ^ 

Much of the enthusiasm she felt for Goethe, 
and German in general, she undoubtedly imparted 
to the members of her circle of distinguished 
friends. They must have accepted to a large 
extent her interpretations ; for there seems to have 
been a great change in sentiment among them 
toward Goethe, in fact, toward all German 
writers. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 

One of the results of Margaret Fuller's study 
of German was the translation of German works 
into English. These are, with the exception of 
a few short poems, either from Goethe's works 
directly, or from works that bear directly or 
indirectly on some phase of his life, and were, 
no doubt, inspired by her admiration for the great 

^Memoirs, I. 119. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 217 

German poet. Her first translation in point of 
time is Goethe's Tasso. This work she must have 
translated and given its present metrical form as 
early as 1834, only two years after she began 
her study of German; for in a letter to Rev. F. 
H. Hedge, Nov. 30, 1834, she expresses her 
intention to print it. She failed, however, to find 
a publisher, and it did not appear in print until 
after her death [in 1859], when her brother, 
Arthur B. Fuller, Included it in a volume of her 
works, entided /ir^, Literature and the Dramas 
with a number of other papers by Margaret 
Fuller, previously published [1846] under the 
title Papers on Literature and Art, 

Significant it is that this drama appealed to 
Margaret Fuller so strongly. It is proof of the 
extraordinary charm that Tasso, this "gem," this 
"perfect work of art," as she calls it, must have 
had for her. 

The quality of the translation as such could no 
doubt be improved here and there. The original 
text is not always followed closely In the trans- 
lation, and the lines are often lengthened or 
broken. The meter also would bear improvement. 
Yet, on the other hand, these faults are in some 
respects more than balanced by positive merits. 



2i8 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

One of the most difficult tasks in translating, 
poetry especially, is to find Idioms In the language 
Into which a work is translated, that correspond 
exactly to those of the original and that convey 
the same meaning and force. Margaret Fuller 
has been remarkably successful In this respect. 
Like Coleridge, in his translations, she "deemed 
the rendering of the spirit, on the whole, more 
desirable than that of the letter." ^ Her transla- 
tion Is expressed in good idiomatic English and 
has all the qualities of an original composition. 
*'The exact transmission of thought", she writes, 
*'seems to me the one Important thing In a trans- 
lation; if grace and purity of style come of them- 
selves, it is so much gained. In translating, I 
throw myself, as entirely as' possible, Into the 
mood of the writer, and make use of such expres- 
sions as would come naturally, If reading the work 
aloud in English. The style thus formed Is at 
least a transcript of the feelings excited by the 
original." ^ For the reader, therefore, it has a 
native flavor and a beauty and charm far superior 
to many translations from foreign authors In 
which the translator stuck closer to the text of 

l^lrt, Literature and the Drama, p. 355. 
' Correspondence of Frdulein Giinderode and Bettine von 
Arnim, Preface, p. vi. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 219 

the original, and was compelled, for that reason, 
to sacrifice beauty of expression and purity of 
idiom. 

Margaret Fuller's preface to her translation of 
Tasso Is Interesting. In it she reveals the fine per- 
ception and feeling for language which she had, 
and expresses for Goethe, and the qualities of the 
drama which she here translated, the most enthusi- 
astic praise. 

"There are difficulties attending the translation 
of German works Into English which might baffle 
one much more skilful In the use of the latter than 
myself. A great variety of compound words 
enables the German writer to give a degree of 
precision and delicacy of shading to his expres- 
sions nearly Impracticable with the terse, the 
dignified, but by no means flexible English idiom. 
The rapid growth of German literature, the con- 
currence of so many master spirits, all at once 
fashioning the language Into a medium for the 
communication of their thoughts, has brought it 
to a perfection which must gradually be Impaired, 
as inferior minds mould and adapt It to their less 
noble uses.*' The German, she says, has a "con- 
densed power of expression" which the English 
has lost. "It is more difficult,'* too, she finds, "to 



220 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

polish a translation than an original work, since 
we are denied the liberty of retrenching or adding 
where the ear and the taste cannot be satisfied." 
But In spite of all the faults which her translation 
may have, she believes "that no setting can utterly 
mar the lustre of such a gem [as the original], 
or make this perfect work of art unwelcome to 
the meditative few, or even to the tasteful 
many. . . . The harmony with which the plot is 
developed, the nicely-adjusted contrasts between 
the characters, the beauty of composition, worthy 
the genius of ancient statuary, must still be per- 
ceptible." * ^ 

In 1839 Margaret Fuller translated the first 
two volumes of Eckermann's Conversations with 
Goethe. This translation was published during 
the same year by George Ripley as the fourth 
volume of a series entitled Specimens of Foreign 
Literature, and formed, according to Emerson's 
account, the basis of the translation of Eckermann 
since published in London by Mr. Oxenford.^ 

As Margaret Fuller, herself, states in the 

* It is my intention in the near future to write a criticism of 
Margaret Fuller's translation of Goethe's Tasso, analyzing and 
comparing it carefully with the original. 

^ Art, Literature and the Drama, pp. 355 f. 

^Memoirs, I. p. 243. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 221 

preface to this work, she compressed or curtailed 
the two German volumes known to her Into one 
In English, omitting the accounts of Goethe's 
experiments and theories of colors, for the Far- 
henlehre would arouse little Interest here. Be- 
sides, she writes: *'I was glad to dispense with 
them [the experiments and theories of color men- 
tioned above] because I have no clear understand- 
ing of the subject, and could not have been secure 
of doing them justice." ^ 

She left out also Eckermann's meager account 
of a journey to Italy, and here and there condensed 
Eckermann's remarks; but only In a few rare 
Instances Goethe's. Of the whole work she 
writes ; 

"I have done It with such care, that I feel 
confident the substance of the work, and Its es- 
sential features, will be found here . . . These 
two rules have been observed, — not to omit even 
such details as snuffing the candles and walking to 
the stove (given by the good Eckermann with 
that truly German minuteness . . .) when they 
seem needed to finish out the picture, either of 
German manners, or Goethe's relations to his 

^ Conversations njjith Goethe, Preface, p. xxv. 



222 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

friends or household." ^ The preface also con- 
tains an unusually good criticism of Goethe (if we 
except one or two statements) which has already 
been quoted at length in the preceding pages. Be- 
sides this, there is also a very just characterization 
of Eckermann and his relations to Goethe. 

The book more than gratified the highest hopes 
that the translator had dared to express for it in 
her preface, in which, as Mr. Higginson has said, 
she "underrates instead of overstating the value 
of her own work." "She made a delightful book 
of it," Mr. Higginson continues, "and one which 
. . . helped to make the poet a familiar person- 
ality to English-speaking readers. For one, I 
can say that it brought him nearer to me than 
any other book, before or since, has ever done." 
She probably got no compensation for it, accord- 
ing to Mr. Higginson, "beyond the good practice 
for herself and the gratitude of others." - She 
undoubtedly had still another aim in publishing 
this work, perhaps the chief aim, namely, to make 
her Goethe better known among her countrymen, 
as the preface clearly indicates throughout. It 
doubtless was a great satisfaction for her to see 

* Preface to Translation of Eckermann's Conversations with 
Goethe, p. xxv. 
^Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, pp. 189 f. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 223 

him growing in favor as a result of this effort on 
her part. 

In the language and expression of this transla- 
tion Margaret Fuller follows much more closely 
the text of the original than she did in Tasso, 
as might naturally be expected in the translation 
of a prose work, where one is not troubled so 
much with the form. Though part of the trans- 
lation was dictated while she was ill and did not 
satisfy her as well as that which she wrote with 
her own hand, nevertheless, none of it is slavishly 
done. It is executed in much the same spirit as 
the former work, and has all the force and beauty 
of original composition. "I have a confidence", 
she says, "that the translation is, in the truest 
sense, faithful, and trust that those who find the 
form living and symmetrical, will not be inclined 
severely to censure some change in the cut or make 
of the garment in which it is arrayed." ^ 

It is very much to be regretted that Margaret 
Fuller never finished her Life of Goethe, for 
which she had gathered so much material from 
original sources, and according to Emerson, left 
heaps of manuscript. Doubtless with her insight 

^ Conversations luith Goethe, Preface, p. xxvi. 



224 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Into the great poet's life and character and her 
unusual ability to comprehend him In what he said, 
she would have produced a work that would have 
done credit to her country. All that we know of 
her proposed work Is from references in her 
letters. 

The first reference Is In an undated letter In 
which she says while meditating on the life of 
Goethe: "I thought I must get some Idea of the 
history of philosophical opinion In Germany, that 
I might be able to judge of the Influences it exer- 
cised upon his mind. I think I can comprehend 
him every other way, and probably Interpret him 
satisfactorily to others, — if I can get the proper 
materials." ^ Again she writes to Emerson In 
1836, after she had apparently studied much and 
hard on the subject of her proposed work, and 
succeeded In arousing her mind to a great activity. 
"Am I, can I make myself fit to write an ac- 
count of half a century of the existence of one 
of the master spirits of this world?" "I am 
shocked to perceive you think I am writing the 
life of Goethe. No, indeed! I shall need a 
great deal of preparation before I shall have It 
clear in my head. I have taken a great many 

^Memoirs, I. 127. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 225 

notes; but I shall not begin to write it, till it all 
lies mapped out before me. I have no material 
for ten years of his life." ' 

Emerson, thinking perhaps Carlyle might be 
able to help Margaret Fuller to secure the needed 
books on Goethe's life, writes to him in September 
of the same year: "A friend of mine who studies 
his (Goethe's) life with care would gladly know 
what records there are of his first ten years after 
his settlement at Weimar . . .'' Carlyle answers: 
''As to Goethe and your friend; I know not 
anything out of Goethe's own works (which have 
many notices in them) that treats specially of 
those ten years." Carlyle, however, names a list 
of references that might lead to the proper 

sources.^ 

The next year (1837) Margaret Fuller agam 
writes: "As you imagine, the Life of Goethe is 
not yet written; but I have studied and thought 
about it much. It grows in my mind with every- 
thing that does grow there. My friends in 
Europe have sent me the needed books on the 
subject, and I am now beginning to work in good 
earnest ... I may find myself incompetent; 
but I go on In hope, secure, at all events, that it 

' Memoirs, I. 128 f. 

^ Carlyle-Emerson Correspondence, V., 1. icx), 109. 



226 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

will be the means of the highest culture."^ A 
little later in the same year she writes: "Mr. 
Ripley,— who is about publishing a series of works 
on Foreign Literature, — has invited me to prepare 
the 'Life of Goethe/ on very advantageous 
terms." ^ ^nd In the first volume of the series 
spoken of Is announced "A Life of Goethe in 
preparation for this work, from original docu- 
ments." ^ 

Margaret Fuller's family, however, needed aid, 
and she ''reluctantly gave up" this "congenial, Ht- 
erary project," and accepted an offer to teach in 
the schools of Providence.* "She spent much time 
on it," Emerson writes, "and has left heaps of 
manuscripts which are notes, transcripts and 
studies in that direction. But she wanted leisure 
and health to finish It." ^ The only published 
writings of Margaret Fuller, by which we may 
judge what the qualities of her Life of Goethe 
would have been, is her article on Goethe In the 
Dial, which, as Emerson says, "is, on many 
accounts, her best paper." 



^Memoirs, I. 175. 
*Ibid., p. 177. 

' Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 189. 
Memoirs, I. 177. 
° Ibid., pp. 243 f. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 227 

Bettine von Arnim's connection with Goethe 
was, without doubt, what first attracted Margaret 
Fuller's attention and Interest to her. In common 
with many of her Boston circle, Margaret Fuller 
was much charmed with the letters that passed 
between the wise and elderly poet and the charm- 
ing, falry-like girl, bubbling over with fun and 
youthful exuberance. In a tribute to a collection 
of these letters In book form under the title 
Goethe's Correspondence with a Child, she writes 
"The correspondence Is as popular here as In 
Germany." ^ Through the Interest awakened by 
this book Margaret Fuller's attention was at- 
tracted to the correspondence between Bettine and 
her Intimate friend, Giinderode, a canoness In 
one of the Catholic orders, who, nevertheless, 
mixed freely with the outside world. This cor- 
respondence Margaret Fuller translated in part 
and published in 1842, under the title Correspon- 
dence of Frdulein Giinderode and Bettine von 
Arnim, The remainder was translated by Mrs. 
Minna Wesselhoeft in i860, after the death of 
Bettine von Arnim, and published in one volume 
with Margaret Fuller's part. 

In describing the difference of character between 

^DiaU Vol. II, No. I. 



228 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

the two, Margaret Fuller writes: "I have been 
accustomed to distinguish the two as Nature and 
Ideal. Bettine, hovering from object to object, 
drawing new tides of vital energy from all, living 
freshly alike in man and tree, loving the breath 
of the damp earth as well as that of the flower 
which springs from It, bounding over the fences 
of society as easily as over the fences of the field, 
Intoxicated with the apprehension of each new 
mystery, never hushed into silence by the highest, 
flying and singing like a bird, sobbing with the 
hopelessness of an infant, prophetic, yet astonished 
at the fulfillment of each prophesy, restless, fear- 
less, clinging to love, yet unwearied in experiment, 
— Is not this the pervasive vital force, cause of 
the effect which we call nature? 

"And Giinderode, in the soft dignity of each 
look and gesture, whose lightest word has the 
silvery spiritual clearness of an angel's lyre, har- 
monizing all objects Into their true relations, draw- 
ing from every form of life its eternal meaning, 
checking, reproving, and clarifying all that was 
unworthy by her sadness at the possibility of Its 
existence ! Does she not meet the wild, fearless 
bursts of the friendly genius, to measure, to purify, 
to interpret, and thereby to elevate? As each 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 229 

word of Bettine's calls to enjoy and behold, like 
a breath of mountain air, so each of Giinderode's 
comes like a moon-beam to transfigure the land- 
scape, to hush the wild beatings of the heart, and 
dissolve all the sultry vapors of day into the pure 
dew-drops of the solemn and sacred night." ^ 

Speaking of the interests which these trans- 
lations must awake, Margaret Fuller says: "A 
single page of Bettine's gives some notion of her 
fresh, fragrant and vigorous genius. But a char- 
acter like Gunderode's, of such subtle harmonies, 
and soft aerial grace, can only be descried through 
multiplied traits. She is a soul so delicately 
apparelled, a woman so tenderly transfigured, that 
the organs made use of to observe common mor- 
tals, seem to need refining in her own atmosphere, 
before they can clearly appreciate her . . . 

*'To those who have eyes to see, and hearts to 
understand the deep leadings of the two charac- 
ters, these pages present a treasury of sweetest 
satisfactions, of lively suggestions; — to the obtuse, 
the vulgar, and the frivolous, they v/ill seem sheer 
folly." ' 

Later, however, Margaret Fuller lost much of 

^ Correspondence of Frdulein Gunderode and Bettine von 
Arnim, Introduction, p. ix. 
'Ibid., pp. vi ff. 



230 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

her admiration for Bettlne's character, as Is shown 
by the following extract from one of her letters: 
"Gunderode Is the Ideal; Bettlne, nature; Giin- 
derode throws herself Into the river because the 
world Is all too narrow. Bettlne lives, and follows 
out every freakish fancy, till the enchanting child 
degenerates Into an eccentric and undignified old 
woman." ^ 

Only a slight perusal of this translation by 
Margaret Fuller Is necessary to see how successful 
the translator has been In keeping the vivacity and 
freshness of the one correspondent, and the pe- 
culiar charm and grace of the other Intact. The 
easy conversational German style Is translated 
Into flowing colloquial English (or more properly 
American) Idiom, with none of Its native vigor 
or freshness lost. 

Margaret Fuller translated a number of short 
poems from Goethe, and a few from other authors 
whom she liked, Schiller and Korner, especially. 
Those which she translated from Goethe express 
for the most part, his philosophical and religious 
views. They were found by me among a mass 

^Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 192; Memoirs^ L p. 
248 ; Ibid., II. pp. 41, 140. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 231 

of Margaret Fuller's manuscript letters and papers 
which were deposited by Mr. T. W. HIgglnson in 
the Boston Public Library, and appear In print 
here for the first time. These poems with her com- 
plete Credo, published in the Appendix, shed more 
light upon her religious convictions than is evident 
from any of her works published heretofore, and 
are valuable perhaps only because they reveal very 
clearly the close relation between her religious 
thinking and that of Goethe. 

EINS UND ALLES 

Goethe. 
Within the infinite its place to find, 
How longeth forth the Individual Mind! 
Chagrin and grief can there disturb no more; — 
Forgetting all hot wishes, or wild Will, 
Where sounds of daily duties may be still, 
And thought, in freedom, float creation o'er. 

Soul of the World! Come to pervade our souls. 
For with the idea which all else controls, 

To live, to do is ours; 
Ye, sympathizing spirits! lead us on 
To Him, the Master by whom all is done. 

Who did, who doth create all other powers. 

To aid in the great work, to recreate, 
Lest matter, by resistance grown elate, 



232 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

A stiff reaction take, 
An ever-living impulse Man must be, 
From shapes and colors of earth, and sky, and sea, 

A second w^orld must make. 

Let all be breathing, acting, moving, living. 
Forming, transforming, taking, giving. 

Only apparent be one moment's pause. 
The Eternal w^ills perpetual change in all, — 
What w^ould stand fast, must soon to nothing fall. 

Such are our being's laws. 

DAUER IM WECHSEL 

Imitated from Goethe. 
We were so deeply blest! 

Oh stay, thou fair May-hour! 
But the full blossom shower 
Is scattered by the balmy West; — 
Now I the tree enjoy, 

Its freshness and its shade, — 
Soon storms will be arrayed 
Its beauty to destroy. 

Hast thou fruit on thy tree? 

Quick take it from the bough, — 

That which has ripened now 
Thine still may be; 
A torrent's force today 

Thy garden will assail. 

Thou through this gentle vale 
No more wilt take thy way. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 233 

But did all else stand fast, 
Couldst thou remain the same, — 
The rocks, the tower of fame 

Are not as in times past 
To thee. The lips are pale 

Which once met thine in love, — 

And from the cliffs above 
She looks not on the vale. 

That hand, so quick and mild 

Each gentle deed to do, 
That step, so light and wild, — 

All this is vanished now! 
While that which takes her place. 

And is named by thy name, 
Like waves which leave no trace, 

Is hasting to the main. 

Let the beginning with the end. 

Harmonious linked in one, 
In thoughts wide current blend, 

Ere yet the whole be flown; 
The objects pass, — but the behest 

Of the immortal muse 
Can charm this Idea to thy breast, 

Which shall new forms produce. 

Goethe's poem Eins und Alles, of which the first 
one of the two poems above is a translation, Is 
one of the best commentaries of his religion that 



234 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

we have. It must have appealed strongly to Mar- 
garet Fuller, for her translation is in a much more 
fervent tone than the original. How nearly the 
religious ideas contained in it coincided with her 
own religious belief is evident by comparing them 
with those in her Credo. Yet that Margaret 
Fuller did not catch the full meaning of this poem, 
nor of Dauer im Wechsel, is also evident. 

According to Margaret Fuller's version of the 
first stanza of Eins iind Alles, uniting with the 
Infinite means a forgetting, an obliteration of 
one's individuality, a state almost similar to that 
of the Buddhists' Nirvana ; while the real meaning 
of Goethe Is that the ego, which usually seeks 
its own self In pleasure, here, on the contrary, 
renounces and completely surrenders itself to the 
All, and In that way finds the fulfillment of Its 
highest desires coupled with supreme pleasure. 

Nor does her rendering of the second stanza 
convey Goethe's full meaning. While Margaret 
Fuller wants the soul of the World to pervade 
our souls, so that we should live and move with 
the world soul, or In other words, become its 
Instruments, Goethe's Idea Is that we should be- 
come creative competitors of the World Soul. 
In this, our highest mission, we are aided, accord- 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 235 

ing to Goethe, by Invisible spirits, supreme masters, 
who guide and lead us to Him who created every- 
thing. 

The second poem Dauer im JVechsel, which she 
calls only "an Imitation from Goethe," Is In a 
way a translation of a poem by Goethe of the 
same name. It Interested Margaret Fuller proba- 
bly for the same reason that the first one did. 
Most of the stanzas of this poem she has trans- 
lated fairly well; but she missed the fundamental 
thought of the poem, which appears in the last 
four lines. 

Goethe was from his youth up vexed by the 
continual change taking place In the phenomena 
of the exterior world, as well as of his Inner life. 
Hence his passionate attempts to analyze these 
changing phenomena in order to discover. If pos- 
sible, the lasting element behind them. Thus in 
the remarkable poem. Die Freuden, written during 
his Leipzig period, he analyzes the ever-changing 
colors of the dragon-fly In an attempt to get at 
the secret of Its beauty, but, disappointed, ends 
with the painful outcry : "So geht es dir Zerglle- 
derer delner Freuden." * A similar outcry of 
grief and disappointment over the fleeting nature 

* "Thus it fares with you, dissector of your joys." 



236 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

of love appears in the poem Das Gliick of the 
same period: 

"Was hilft es mir, dass ich geniesse? 
Wie Traume fliehn die warmsten Kiisse, 
Und alle Freude wie ein Kuss."* 

In the poem Dauer im Wechsel we find the same 
analyzing of the phenomena of the exterior and 
inner world, but It Is an analyzing which finally 
reaches the result for which Goethe had always 
searched and which he expressed In the lines : 

"Danke, dass die Gunst der Musen 
Unvergangliches verheisst : 
Den Gehalt in deinem Busen 
Und die Form in deinem Geist,"* 

The meaning clearly is, that It Is the Inner world 
that Is Imperishable, the world which the poet 
creates for himself and for us from the elements 
of bare reality. These four lines of verse Mar- 
garet Fuller translates: "The objects pass, — 

•What good is it to me that I enjoy? 

Like dreams the warmest kisses flee, 

And all joy like a kiss." 
** Be thankful that the favor of the Muses 
Promises the imperishable: 
The contents within your bosom 
And form within your spirit 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 237 

but the behest, etc./' clearly drawing the conclu- 
sion, that in spite of all this change, the promises 
or behest of the immortal muse comforted or 
"charmed" us by the thought that new forms are 
produced to take the place of the old ones, which 
are gradually changing and passing away, — 
clearly an altogether different thought. 

Margaret Fuller doubtless shows her limitations 
here and there in comprehending Goethe's full 
meaning; yet on the other hand, we are often 
astounded at her power of grasping Goethe's 
deepest thoughts. This is especially the case in 
her interpretation of Prometheus which she trans- 
lated and sent to a friend, and which expresses 
the relation between man and the Infinite. The 
same may be said of the poem The God-like, 
partly translated by Margaret Fuller, in her first 
article on Goethe in the Dial, and republished in 
Life Without and Life JFithin} 

The other poem.s translated from Goethe, The 
Consolers, Eagles and Dozes, and Epilogue to the 
Tragedy of Essex, all express a genuine depth of 
feeling, usually of grief. In the first two the 
heart is consoled by some happy thought or reflec- 
tion in the end; but not in the last named. Here, 

^Life Without and Life Within, pp. 18 f. 



238 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

the queen (Elizabeth) desires to be left alone to 
give vent to her tears for Lord Essex, whom she 
loves, but whom she has had to condemn to die 
for treason. 

The technique of the poems above is not uni- 
form. By comparing the first, Eins und Alles, 
with the original we see that the lines are generally 
lengthened by a foot of two syllables. The poetic 
picture, too. Is sometimes changed, and here and 
there some of the expressions seem forced. The 
meter, also, could be Improved In some places. 
The second poem, Dauer im fVechsel, reads some- 
what more smoothly; yet it falls far short of the 
beauty of the original. After a careful study and 
analysis of these two poems, one feels extremely 
doubtful as to whether Margaret Fuller ever 
Intended them for publication at all. If she had, 
she doubtless would have polished them up con- 
siderably. What she probably did was to make 
a rapid translation of these and other poems that 
appealed to her most strongly In order to send 
them, as she did Prometheus, to some friend who 
may not have had such a ready command of Ger- 
man as she. In nearly every case, however, she 
remained true to the general thought and spirit of 
the original. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 239 

The poems which have been published are trans- 
lated with more care and skill. Especially is this 
true of the last named, the Epilogue to the Trag- 
edy of Essex, which is indeed well translated, 
artistic, and powerful. The poems. The Consoler , 
and Eagles and Doves^ are also very well trans- 
lated, and are very interesting when considered 
from the relation they bear to Margaret Fuller's 
inner life. 

That which is, however, of most importance to 
us in these poems is not as to how skillfully and 
artistically they have been translated, but rather 
why they appealed to Margaret Fuller, in fact, 
became a part of her, and how she understood 
them and interpreted them to her friends. Only 
when judged from this standpoint, when con- 
sidered as vehicles of thought, do they become im- 
portant. 

Of course, Goethe's works are mentioned again 
and again throughout her works. She uses illus- 
trations, passages, and ideas from them contin- 
ually, but so far as the interpretation of Goethe's 
characters and philosophical doctrines are con- 
cerned, they remain substantially the same 
with her throughout. If anything, their impres- 
sion deepens and grows clearer to her as time 



240 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

goes on. It is true Margaret Fuller was much 
Indebted to Carlyle. She ordered his works for 
her library as soon as they were published, and 
read them with the greatest Interest, often even 
making them the topic of discussion In her letters 
to Emerson. There Is also a striking similarity 
between many of her deepest thoughts on the great 
German writers and those of Carlyle. Doubtless 
some of these thoughts and much of her Inspira- 
tion for German had their origin In Carlyle's 
works. Yet we cannot but feel when we read her 
letters and criticism of Goethe's works that by 
far the larger portion of her deep feeling for the 
great German poet, and therefore the thoughts 
resulting from them, were Inspired directly by 
Goethe's works, and were. In this respect, at first 
hand, and therefore original. That she main- 
tained an Independence of feeling Is clear from the 
preceding pages on her study of German. More 
than this, she even differs from Carlyle quite often, 
and now and then even vigorously attacks some of 
his views. ^ 

In judging her criticism and her interpretations 
of Goethe we see that they compare very favor- 
ably with the best criticisms of today — three- 

^ See for example, Memoirs, I. 262 f. 



TRANSLATIONS FROM GOETHE 241 

quarters of a century later. But only then can 
we do Margaret Fuller justice when we consider 
her time and place and compare her criticisms of 
these German writers with those of the best 
literary critics then in America, and see her vast 
superiority over them all, — only then can we 
appreciate what her influence and criticisms meant 
in the way of a proper understanding and appre- 
ciation of Goethe in America. 



CONCLUSION 

We have seen the powerful Influence of Goethe 
upon Margaret Fuller; how, through an Intense 
study of his life and works, she developed her 
inner life of thought and feeling, and ripened into 
the extraordinary personality which her contem- 
poraries conceded her to be. We have seen how 
she accepted Goethe's religious and philosophical 
teachings almost in their entirety, though she did 
not relinquish certain Puritan convictions. While 
we found that she agreed with the Transcendental- 
ists, Inasmuch as she, as well as they, strove after 
a higher, freer, and nobler humanity, we also 
discovered how radically she differed from them In 
her fundamental religious and philosophical be- 
liefs, and the methods by which she hoped to 
arrive at the goal at which they both aimed. 
There remains but a few words to be said concern- 
ing the Influences she exerted for the study of 
German In America, hitherto not mentioned. 

Margaret Fuller herself felt that, by the year 
1846, her efforts to arouse a healthy interest for 
German had met with a considerable degree of 

242 



CONCLUSION 243 

success, for she writes: "I feel with satisfaction 
that I have done a good deal to extend the influ- 
ence of the great minds of Germany and Italy 
among my compatriots." ' She had thus realized 
the sincere wish expressed a decade before, when 
she so earnestly desired to interpret, in some 
periodical, the German authors whose writings 
she liked best.^ 

Besides her efforts to stimulate an Interest In 
German by means of her printed articles, she 
translated (1836-37) for Dr. William EUery 
Channing, the apostle of the Unitarian church, 
and discussed with him the works of Herder and 
De Wette. The effect upon him must have been 
considerable, for we find a number of the thoughts 
of these German thinkers incorporated into the 
doctrines of the Unitarian church. In the schools 
where Margaret Fuller taught, her favorite sub- 
ject was German. If we but look at the long list of 
German works which she read through with her 
classes we may judge what Interest for German she 
must have inspired In her pupils. One of the most 
telling influences which she exerted for German, 
however, was through her "Conversations" in 
the cultured circles of Boston. Here, Mr. Clarke 

^Memoirs, I. i68. 

^ Introd. to Papers on Literature and Art, p. vii. 



244 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

says, she "dazzled all who knew her", and every- 
body who heard her, Including Emerson, agreed 
that her power was most remarkable. She in- 
spired in these meetings, "the Spirit which giveth 
life", according to one of the reporters of the 
"Conversations"; "she seemed a priestess of the 
youth ... a companion". She was even called 
a "sibyl", a "prophetess", and Emerson says, she 
was sent to "announce a better day", and "had 

the power to inspire", "the companion was 

made a thinker". ^ Margaret Fuller, herself, says : 
"All were in a glow." If we add to this what Mrs. 
Dall has written, namely, that thoughts and illus- 
trations from Goethe were brought in continually, 
and that now and then Goethe was even made a 
subject for a whole evening's discussion, we see 
what an influence the "Conversations" must have 
had toward making Goethe better known and 
more widely read in America. Moreover, the 
whole glowing account of the "Conversations" 
shows that, consciously or unconsciously, Marga- 
ret Fuller followed out, in developing the inner 
lives of the members of her classes, precisely the 
suggestions which she found in the works of 
Goethe. 

^Memoirs, I. 78; 349; 316; 311 f. 



CONCLUSION 245 

How far Margaret Fuller's Influence went in 
the proper understanding and appreciation of 
Goethe in America we shall never be quite able 
to tell. This much we know, that all her associates, 
who, as we have seen, included the brightest and 
most original minds in New England, became, 
with few exceptions, diligent and enthusiastic stu- 
dents of German, and of Goethe especially. The 
German scholars connected with Harvard college 
in one way or another, — Charles Follen, George 
Ticknor, Edward Everett, F. H. Hedge, J. F. 
Clarke, and others — without doubt did much in 
arousing a lively interest in the study of German 
in America. Carlyle and Coleridge, from across 
the sea, had a powerful influence for Goethe 
and German studies in general, especially upon 
such men as Emerson and W. E. Channing. Yet 
after considering and weighing all these Influences, 
and giving each of these scholars, writers, and 
teachers his just dues, there is still no doubt that 
one of the greatest factors in opening up for 
America *'the rich gardens of German literature" 
— to use Rev. W. H. Channlng's expression — was 
Margaret Fuller. How many of her countrymen j^ 

enjoyed and relished the precious fruits they found 
there is shown by the zeal with which this whole 



246 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

literary circle studied German, and by the demand 
that this growing Interest soon created for German 
in the colleges. German has held its own in this 
country ever since, and the great names of German 
literature are known In every educated circle In 
America. 

Though the tendency of all criticism of the 
present is to avoid, whenever possible, the super- 
lative degree, yet It does not seem altogether un- 
fitting. In passing an estimation upon Margaret 
Fuller's Influence, to quote In conclusion a passage 
from James Freeman Clarke, who, of all her 
biographers, certainly knew her and understood 
her best. "Margaret was," he writes in the 
Memoirs, "to persons younger than herself, a 
Macaria and Natalia. She was wisdom and Intel- 
lectual beauty. . . . To those of her own age, 
she was a sibyl and seer, — a prophetess, revealing 
the future, pointing the path, opening their eyes to 
the great aims only worthy of pursuit In life. To 
those older than herself she was like the Eupho- 
rlon In Goethe's drama, child of Faust and Helen, 
— a wonderful union of exuberance and judgment, 
born of romantic fulness and classic limitations." ^ 

^Memoirs, I. 97. 



APPENDIX 



MARGARET FULLER's RELIGIOUS CREED 



In the following pages Is published for the first 
time Margaret Fuller's religious creed of 1842 
In Its complete form, just as It stands In her own 
handwriting among her other manuscripts dona- 
ted to the Boston Public Library, by Mr. T. W. 
HIgglnson, one of Margaret Fuller's friends and 
biographers. The creed contained originally two 
and one half lines more, but these have been com- 
pletely obliterated and blotted out with Ink In the 
same manner as parts of many of her letters, pre- 
sumably for the purpose of suppressing the 
contents. Those parts of the Credo which have 
been published before In Margaret Fuller's 
Memoirs,^ are full of Interpolations and omissions. 
Many of the words are changed and sometimes 
whole sentences are re-wrltten In such a manner 
that the original thought Is often very much 
obscured. The creed, as It stands complete, by no 
means presumes to be a comprehensive formula- 
tion of her entire religious and philosophical 

^Memoirs, II. 88 flF. 
247 



248 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

belief, as any one will soon discover In reading 
her works. The following note by Margaret 
Fuller, which was sent to a friend with the Credo 
shows how she herself considered It. "Ever since 

told me how his feelings had changed towards 

Jesus, I have wished much to write some sort of a 
Credo, out of my present state, but have had no 
time till last night. I have not satisfied myself In 
the least, and have written very hastily, yet, 
though not full enough to be true, this statement 
is nowhere false to me." ^ 



A Credo. 

There is a spirit uncontainable and uncontained. — 
Within it all manifestation Is contained, whether of good 
(accomplishment) or evil (obstruction). To itself its 
depths are unknown. By living It seeks to know Itself, 
thus evolving plants, animals, men, suns, stars, angels, 
and, it Is to be presumed an Infinity of forms not yet 
visible In the horizon of this being who now writes. 

Its modes of operation are twofold. First, as genius 
inspires genius, love love, angel-mother brings forth angel- 
chlld. This Is the uninterrupted generation, or publica- 
tion of spirit taking upon Itself congenial forms. Second, 
conquering obstruction, finding the like in the unlike. 

^Memoirs, II. 88. 



MARGARET FULLER'S CREDO 249 

This IS a secondary generation, a new dynasty, as virtue 
for simplicity, faith for oneness, charity for pure love. 

Then begins the genesis of man, as through his con- 
sciousness he attests the laws which regulated the divine 
genesis. The Father is justified in the Son. 

The mind of man asks 'Why was this second develop- 
ment? — Why seeks the divine to exchange best for better, 
bliss for hope, domesticity for knowledge?' We reject 
the plan in the universe which the Spirit permitted as the 
condition of conscious life. We reject it In the childhood 
of the soul's life. The cry of infancy is why should we 
seek God when He is alwaj^s there, why seek what Is ours 
as soul's through indefinite pilgrimages, and burdensome 
cultures ? 

The intellect has no answer to this question, yet as we 
through faith and purity of deed enter into the nature 
of the Divine it is answered from our own experience. 
We understand, though we cannot explain the mystery 
of something gained where all already Is. 

God, we say. Is Love. If we believe this we must 
trust Him. Whatever has been permitted by the law of 
being must be for good, and only in time not good. We 
do trust Him and are led forward by experience. Sight 
gives experience of outward life, faith of Inward. We 
then discern, however faintly, the necessary harmony of 
the two lives. The moment we have broken through 
an obstruction, not accidentally, but by the aid of faith, 
we begin to realize why any was permitted. We begin 
to interpret the universe and deeper depths are opened 
with each soul that is convinced. For it would seem that 



250 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

the Divine expressed His meaning to Himself more 
distinctly in man than in the other forms of our sphere, 
and through him uttered distinctly the Hallelujah which 
the other forms of nature only intimate. 

Wherever man remains imbedded in nature, whether 
from sensuality or because he is not yet awakened to 
consciousness, the purpose of the whole remains unful- 
filled, hence our displeasure when man is not in a sense 
above nature. Yet when he is not bound so closely with 
all other manifestations, as duly ta express their spirit, 
we are also displeased. He must be at once the highest 
form of nature and conscious of the meaning she has been 
striving successively to unfold through those below him. 

Centuries pass, — whole races of men are expended in 
the effort to produce one that shall realize this idea and 
publish spirit in the human form. But here and there 
there is a degree of success. Life enough is lived through 
a man to justify the great difficulties and obstructions 
attendant on the existence of mankind. 

Then through all the realms of thought vibrates the 
affirmation 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well 
pleased,' and many souls encouraged and instructed offer 
themselves to the baptism, whether of water, whether of 
fire. 

I do not mean to lay an undue stress upon the position 
and office of man, merely because I am of his race, and 
understand best the scope of his destiny. The history of 
the earth, the motions of the heavenly bodies suggest 
already modes of being higher than his, and which fulfill 
more deeply this office of interpretation. But I do sup- 



MARGARET FULLER'S CREDO 251 

pose his life to be the rivet in one series of links in the 
great chain, and that all these higher existences are anal- 
ogous to his. Music suggests them, and when carried 
on these strong wings through realms which on the ground 
we discern but dimly, we foresee how the next step in 
the soul's upward course shall interpret man to the uni- 
verse as he now interprets those forms beneath himself; 
for there is ever evolving a consciousness of consciousness, 
and a soul of the soul. To know is to bring to light some- 
what yet to be known. And as we elucidate the previous 
workings of spirit, we ourselves become a new material 
for its development. 

Man is himself one tree in the garden of the spirit. 
From his trunk grow many branches, social contracts, 
art, literature, religion, etc. The trunk gives the history 
of the human race. It has grown up higher into the 
heavens, but its several acorns, though each expressed 
the all, did not ripen beyond certain contours and a cer- 
tain size. 

In the history of matter, however, laws have been more 
and more clearly discerned, and so in the history of spirit, 
many features of the God-man have put forth; several 
limbs, disengaged themselves. One is what men call 
revelation, different from other kinds only in being made 
through the acts and words of men. Its law is identical 
whether displaying itself as genius or piety, but its modes 
of expression are distinct dialects though of similar 
structure. 

The way it is done is this. As the Oak desires to plant 
its acorns, so do souls become the fathers of souls. Some 



252 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

do this through the body, others through the intellect. 
The first class are citizens; the second artists, philoso- 
phers, lawgivers, poets, saints, — All these are anointed, 
all Immanuel, all Messiah, so far as they are true to the 
law of their incorruptible existence; brutes and devils 
so far as they are subjected to that of their corruptible 
existence. 

But yet further, as wherever there is a tendency, a 
form is gradually evolved as its type; as the rose repre- 
sents the flower world and is its queen, as the lion and 
eagle compress within themselves the noblest that is ex- 
pressed in the animal kingdom, as the telescope and 
microscope express the high and searching desires of man; 

and the organ and ( )* his completeness, so has 

each tribe of thoughts and lives its law upon it to pro- 
duce a king, a form which shall stand before it a visible 
representation of the aim of its strivings. It gave laws 
with Confucius and Moses; it tried them with Brahma, 
it lived its life of eloquence in the Apollo, it wandered 
with Osiris. It lived one life as Plato, another as 
Michael Angelo, or Luther. It has made Gods, it has 
developed men. Seeking, making it produce ideals of the 
developments of which humanity is capable, and one of 
the highest, nay in some respects the very highest it has 
yet known was the life of Jesus of Nazareth. 

I suppose few are so much believers in his history as 
myself. I believe {in my own way) in the long prepara- 
tion of ages, and the truth of the prophecy. I see a 
necessity in the character of Jesus why Abraham should 

* Word illegible. 



MARGARET FULLER'S CREDO 253 

be the founder of his nation, Moses its lawgiver, and 
David its king and poet. I believe in the genesis, as given 
in the Old Testament. 1 believe in the prophets, and 
that they foreknew, not only what their nation required, 
but what the development of universal man required, a 
Redeemer, an Atoner, one to make, at the due crisis, 
voluntarily the sacrifice Abraham would have made of 
the child of his old age, a lamb of God, taking away the 
sins of the world. I believe Jesus came when the time 
was ripe, that he was peculiarly a messenger and son of 
God. I have nothing to say in denial (of) the story of 
his birth. Whatever the true circumstances were in 
time he was born of a virgin, and the tale expresses a 
truth of the soul. I have no objection to the miracles, ex- 
cept where they do not happen to please me. Why should 
not a soul so consecrate and intent develop new laws and 
make matter plastic? I can imagine him walking the 
waves and raising the dead without any violation of my 
usual habits of thought. He would not remain In the 
tomb, they say, surely not; death is impossible to such a 
being. He remained upon earth and all who have met 
him since on the way have felt their souls burn within 
them. He ascended to Heaven, surely, it could not be 
otherwise. 

But when I say to you, also, that though I think all 
this really happened, it Is of no consequence to me whether 
it did or not, that the ideal truth such illustrations present 
to me, is enough, and that if the mind of St. John, for 
instance, had conceived the whole and offered it to us 
as a poem, to me, as far as I know, It would be just as 



254 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

real. You see how wide the gulf that separates me from 
the Christian Church. 

Yet you also see that I believe in the history of the 
Jewish nation and its denouement in Christ, as presenting 
one great type of spiritual existence. It is very dear to 
me and occupies a large portion of my thoughts. I have 
no trouble, so far from the sacrifice required of Abraham, 
for instance, striking me as it does Mr. Parker, I accept 
it as prefiguring a thought to be fully expressed by the 
death of Christ (yet forget not that they who passed 
their children through the fire to Moloch were pious also, 
and not more superstitious than an exclusive devotion 
to Christ has made many of his followers). Do you 
not place Christ then in a higher place than Socrates, for 
instance, or Michael Angelo? Yes! Because if his life was 
not truer, it was deeper, and he is a representative of the 
ages. But then I consider the Greek Apollo as one also! 

Have men erred in following Christ as a leader? Per- 
haps rarely. So great a soul must make its mark for 
many centuries. Yet only when men are freed from him, 
and interpret him by the freedom of their own souls, 
open to visits of the Great Spirit from every side can he 
be known as he is. 

'With your view do you not think He placed undue em- 
phasis on his own position?' 

In expression he did so, but this is not in my way 
either, I should like to treat of this separately in another 
letter. 

Where he was human, not humanly-divine, and where 
men so received him, there was failure, and is mist and 



MARGARET FULLER'S CREDO 255 

sect, — but never where he brought them to the Father. 
But they knew not what they did with him then and do 
not now. 

For myself, I believe fn Christ because I can do without 
him; because the truth he announces I see elsewhere 
intimated; because it is foreshadowed in the very nature 
of my own being. But I do not wish to do without him. 
He is constantly aiding and answering me. Only I 
will not lay any undue and exclusive emphasis on him. 
When he comes to me I will receive him; when I feel 
inclined to go by myself, I will. I do not reject the 
church either. Let men who can with sincerity live in 
it. I would not — for I believe far more widely than 
any body of men I know. And as nowhere I worship 
less than in the places set apart for that purpose, I will 
not seem to do so. The blue sky seen above the opposite 
roof preaches better than any brother, because, at present, 
a freer, simpler medium of religion. When great souls 
arise again that dare to be entirely free, yet are humble, 
gentle, and patient, I will listen, if they wish to speak. 
But that time is not nigh; these I see around me, here 
and in Europe, are mostly weak and young. 

Would I could myself say with some depth what I feel 
as to religion in my very soul. It would be a clear note 
of calm security. But for the present, I think you will 
see how it is with me as to Christ. 

I am grateful here, as everywhere, where spirit bears 
fruit in fulness. It attests the justice of my desires; it 
kindles my faith; it rebukes my sloth; it enlightens my 
resolve. But so does the Apollo, and the beautiful infant, 



256 MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

and the summer's earliest rose. It Is only one modifi- 
cation of the same harmony. Jesus breaks through the 
soil of the world's life, like some great river through 
the else inaccessible plains and valleys. I bless Its course. 
I follow It. But It is a part of the All. There Is nothing 
peculiar about it, but its form. 

I will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems, though I 
cannot abide in them one moment. I see most men are 
still In need of them. To them their banners, their 
tents; let them be Platonists, Fire-worshippers, Christians; 
let them live in the shadow of the past revelations. But 
Oh Father of our souls, I seek thee. I seek thee in 
these forms; and in proportion as they reveal thee more, 
they lead me beyond themselves. I would learn from 
them all, looking to thee. I set no limits from the past 
to my soul or any soul. Countless ages may not produce 
another worthy to loose the shoes of Jesus of Nazareth; 
yet there will surely come another manifestation of that 
Word that was In the beginning. For It is not dead, but 
sleepeth; and If it lives, must declare itself. 

All future manifestations will come, like this, — not 
to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill. But 
as an Abraham called for a Moses, a Moses for a David, 
so does Christ for another ideal.* . . . 

We want a life more complete and various than that 
of Christ. We have had the Messiah to reconcile and 
teach, let us have another to live out all the symbolical 
forms of human life with the calm beauty and physical 

*Two and one-half lines are blotted out and obliterated here, 
so as to make it totally illegible. 



MARGARET FULLER'S CREDO 257 

fulness of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness of a 
Moses, with the holy love and purity of Jesus. Amen! 
Addenda. 

I have not shown with any distinctness how the very 
greatness of the manifestation in Jesus calls for a greater. 
But this as the extreme emphasis given by himself to his 
office, should be treated of separately in a letter or essay 
on the processes of genius in declaring itself. 

I have not shown my deep feeling of his life as a 
genuine growth, so that his words are all living and 
they come exactly to memory with all the tone and gesture 
of the moment, true runes of a divine oracle. It is the 
same with Shakespeare and in a less degree with Dante. 

I have not spoken of men clinging to him from the 
same weakness that makes them so dependent on a priest- 
hood, or makes idols of the objects of affection. In him 
hearts seek the Friend; minds the Guide. But this is 
weakness in religion, as elsewhere. No prop will do. 
'The soul must do its own immortal work', and books, 
lovers, friends, meditations fly from us only to return, 
when we can do without them. But when we can use 
and learn from them, yet feel able to do without them 
they will depart no more. If I were to preach on this 
subject I would take for a text the words of Jesus: 

'Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for 
you that I go away; for if I go not, the Comforter will 
not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto 
you.'^ 

^Margaret Fuller MSS. in Boston Public Library. Summer 
of 1842. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The following bibliography does not Include 
many of the histories and general reference books 
of literature and philosophy consulted In the pur- 
suit of this study, such, for example, as those of 
Kant, Goethe, American literature, etc. For an 
excellent bibliography of Important works and 
magazine articles concerning Margaret Fuller (up 
to the year 1884) the reader is referred to the 
Bibliographical Appendix In T. W. HIgglnson's 
Margaret Fuller Ossoli (pp. 315 ff.). 

WORKS OF MARGARET FULLER. 

Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe, Translated 
from the German. Boston, 1839. 

Correspondence of Frdulein Giinderode and Bettine von 
Arnim [Translated from the German]. Boston, 
1842. Reprinted, with additional letters trans- 
lated by Mrs. Minna Wesselhoeft. Boston, 
1861. 

Summer on the Lakes. Boston, 1843. 

Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York, 1844. 

Literature and Art. New York, 1846, 1852. 

Collected Works, with an Introduction by Horace 

259 



26o MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Greeley, and edited by Margaret Fuller's brother, 
Arthur B. Fuller. Four Volumes. New York, 
1855. 
At Home and Abroad, or Things and Thoughts in 
America and Europe, containing Summer on the 
Lakes, her letters from Europe, and a description 
of her homeward voyage, shipwreck and death. 
Woman in the Nineteenth Century and Kindred 
Papers relating to the Sphere, Condition and 
Duties of Woman. 
Life Without and Life Within, A collection of re- 
views and poems. 
Art, Literature, and the Drama, containing a reprint 
of Literature and Art and a translation of Goethe's 
Tasso, 

The Dial, in iwo volumes. Boston, 1840-44. 

Love Letters, 1 845-1 846, with an introduction by Julia 
Ward Howe. New York, 1903. 

Margaret and Her Friends, or Ten Conversations with 
Margaret Fuller. Boston, 1895. 

Margaret Fuller Manuscripts. Boston Public Library. 



BIOGRAPHIES OF MARGARET FULLER^ REFERENCE 
BOOKS^ ETC. 

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, by R. W. Emerson, 
W. H. Channing, and J. F. Clarke. Two 
Volumes. Boston, 1852. 

Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli), in Famous Women 
series, by Julia Ward Howe. Boston, 1883. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 261 

Margaret Fuller Ossoli, in American Men of Letters 
series, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Bos- 
ton, 1884. 

Reminiscences of Ednah Dow Cheney. Boston, 1902. 

James Freeman Clarke, Autobiography, Diary and Cor- 
respondence, edited by Edward Everett Hale. 
Boston and New York, 1891. 

Memoirs of a Hundred Years, by Edward Everett Hale. 
New York, 1902. 

Studies in New England Transcendentalism, by Harold 
Clarke Goddard. New York, 1908. 

Transcendentalism in New England, A History, by 
Octavius Brooks Frothingham. New York, 1876. 

Brook Farm; Its Members, Scholars, and Visitors, by 
Lindsay Swift. New York, 1900. 

A History of Literature in America, by Barrett Wendell, 
and Chester Noyes Greenough. New York, 1907, 

A History of American Literature, 1607-1865, by Wil- 
liam P. Trent. New York, 1903. 



INDEX 



Alcott, A, Bronson, 3, 5 ; 
estimation of Margaret 
Fuller's power to enrich our 
literature, 6. 

Alexandrians, The, 78. 

Alfieri, 52. 

Amalia, the Grand Duchess, 
Goethe's benefactress, 57, 
208. 

Ariosto, 52, 159. 

Austin, Sarah, 58. 

Bettine von Arnim (Brentano), 
Margaret Fuller's transla- 
tion of Correspondence of 
Frdulein Giinderode and 
Bettine von Arnim, 227-230; 
Margaret Fuller's admira- 
tion for, 228-229, 230. 

Brook Farm, 129-132. 

Brown, , Margaret Fuller 

studies his Philosophy, 30. 

Brown, Charles Brockden, 12. 

Buhle, , History of Phi- 
losophy, read by Margaret 
Fuller, 50. 

Byron, 180. 

Caesar, 28. 

Carlyle, Thomas, his impres- 
sion of Margaret Fuller, 11 ; 
writings arouse interest of 
Margaret Fuller in German, 
42 ; friendly attitude toward 
Goethe, 150-151; Margaret 
Fuller's indebtedness to, 240; 



aids Margaret Fuller in 
securing material for her 
proposer Life of Goethe, 
225 ; other references, 58, 78, 
172, 245. 

Cervantes, 28. 

Channing, Dr. W. E., Mar- 
garet Fuller's tribute to his 
preaching, 30; she translates 
and discusses Herder and 
De Wette with, 50, 243 ; 
245. 

Channing, W. H., a member 
of "Transcendental Club", 
3 ; Margaret Fuller's tribute 
to his preaching, 36; her 
great personal influence on 
him and others, 8, 18, 117, 
137, 245; gives definition 
and characteristics of Tran- 
scendentalism, 78, 82, 115, 
116, n8, 119, 121, 124. 

Cheney, Edna Dow, testimony 
concerning character and 
power of Margaret Fuller's 
"Conversations", 120; Mar- 
garet Fuller's religion, 146- 
147. 

Clarke, James Freeman, 
Goethe's influence on, 46, 61- 
62, 85; Margaret Fuller's 
close personal relations with, 
6-7, 46-48 ; both attracted to 
German literature at same 



263 



264 



INDEX 



time, 42; his assistance in 
her study of German, 44, 46- 
47; writes of her German 
studies and development of 
inner life, 47-48, 72; of her 
character and religious life, 
43, 144, 71-72, 85-86, 147; 
of her power to inspire 
ambition and draw out indi- 
viduality, 7-8, 69, 244, 246 ; 
other references, 3, 18, 36, 
45, 245. 

Coleridge, S. T., 61, 78, 218, 
245. 

Cooper, James Fenimore, 12. 

Cousin, v., 78. 

Credo of 1842, Margaret 
Fuller's in full, 347-357; 
references to, 36, 89, 90; 
Goethe's doctrine of "Spirit- 
Nature" in, 94-98, 105, 145, 
234; interpolations and omis- 
sions in Credo as published 
in Memoirs, 247-248. 

Creizenach, Theodore, empha- 
sizes Goethe as liberator, 60, 
61. 

Dall, Caroline H,, 100, 137, 
244. 

Dante, 52. 

De Wette, W. M. L., 50, 78, 

243- 
Dial, Margaret Fuller editor 

of, 5, 113; character of, 114, 
115; its importance, 4-5; 
Emerson's definition of 
Transcendentalism in, 75 ; 
John A, Saxton's article 
"Prophecy-Transcendent- 
sHsm-Progress", 77 ; refer- 



ences to passages from, 12. 
15, 106, 151; references to 
passages from Margaret 
Fuller's criticism of Goethe 
and his works, 154, 176, 181, 
182, 183, 196; other refer- 
ences, 17, 68, 73, 103. 

Eckermann, J. P., 20, 67 ; his 
Conversations nvith Goethe 
translated by Margaret 
Fuller, 220-223. 

Eichhorn, J. G., 50. 

Emerson, R. W., 3, 5, 15; 
defines Transcendentalism, 
75; characterizes Dial, 113; 
with Carlyle aids Margaret 
Fuller in her proposed 
Life of Goethe, 224-225; 
gives Goethe as source of 
Margaret Fuller's person- 
ality, 52-53; effects of his 
preaching upon her, 36, 134- 
135; her influence on him, 
8-10, 244; studies Goethe at 
solicitation of Carlyle, 151, 
245 ; his Puritan feeling 
against Goethe, 136, 149- 
153; 157-158; difference be- 
tween his temperament, reli- 
gion, and philosophy and 
Margaret Fuller's, 54, 134- 
143 ; references to Margaret 
Fuller's studies and develop- 
ment, 31, 52-53, 68-69; to 
her belief in daemonolog}', 
107-108 ; to her character 
and personality, 18, 101-102, 
144; to her religion, 147. 

Epictetus, 31. 

Everett, Edward, 44, 245. 



INDEX 



265 



Farrar, Professor John, 50. 
Felton, Professor at Harvard, 

59- 

Fichte, J. G., 50, 78. 

Follen, Dr. Charles, teacher of 
German and ethics in Har- 
vard, 44; his influence on 
Margaret Fuller in study of 
German ; 44, 45, 46, 49 ; 245. 

Fourier, his doctrine of char- 
acter-building criticised and 
compared with Goethe's by 
Margaret Fuller, 129-132. 

Fuller, Arthur B., defends 
Margaret Fuller's and his 
father against criticism of 
Margaret, 24 {footnote). 

Fuller, Edith D., niece of Mar- 
garet Fuller, letter quoted, 

45- 

Fuller, Margaret (Crane), 
mother of Margaret Fuller, 
character of, 21, 22. 

Fuller, Sarah Margaret 
(Ossoli), biographical sketch, 
list and dates of her publica- 
tions, 20-21 ; manuscripts, 
230-231, 247; her influence 
on American literature under- 
estimated, v-vi ; leader in 
movement to free and 
deepen American literature, 
I, 3-6; editor of Dial, 4, 
114; its importance in Amer- 
ican literature, 4-5 ; she dis- 
closes weakness in American 
literature and suggests reme- 
dies, I, 12-17; estimate of 
her power as a literary 
critic: by Higginson, 5-6; 
by Alcott, 6; by Greeley, 6; 
Carlyle's estimation of, 11; 
influence upon Channing, 



Clarke, Emerson, and other 
noted men, 6-io, 243-244, 
246 ; leader in Boston "Con- 
versations", 4, 117-121, 243- 
244; brings Americans to 
appreciation of German 
literature, 2, 66, 67, 242-246; 
unjust criticism against, 17, 
18; her early education, 19- 
40; her father her first but 
severe teacher, 20, 23, 24; 
character of parents and in- 
herited traits, 21-25, 33 \ her 
studies, 23, 30-31 ; Greek 
and Roman ideals, 27-28 ; 
evil effects of overstudy and 
living in books, 24-25, 29; 
little read in Shakespeare, 
31; barrenness of inner life, 
26-27, 29, 39; attends 
School of Dr. Park in Bos- 
ton, 29 ; at Groton in Girls' 
school of the Misses Prescott, 
29-30; idealizes an English 
friend, 26; strict religious 
bringing-up, 23, 33; attitude 
toward orthodox church, 
32-36, 89-90; premature de- 
velopment of mind to neglect 
of other powers, 24, 25, 39; 
a longing for an inner life, 
23, 24, 26, 29, 37-39; study 
of German, 4, 42; power of 
comprehension, 43 ; scope 
and intensity of her German 
studies, 42, 48-53, 66 {foot- 
note) ; advantage in moving 
in Harvard circles, 43, 44; 
f^reat scholars who assisted 
her: Follen, Hedge, Clarke, 
44-47; inner life quickened, 
transformed by German 
studies, 47-48; 52-53, 62-70; 



266 



INDEX 



"pupil" of Goethe, 52, 63- 
64, 66 ; passionate love for 
beautiful, 47; how diflFerent 
German writers impress and 
afreet her, 49-53 ; interest in 
German composers, 51 ; a 
residue of Puritanism in her 
nnture; effect upon her criti- 
cisms, 54-56, 149 ; supremacy 
and permanency of Goethe's 
influence on her, 56-59, 67- 
69 ; its character, 59-60, 62, 
159-162; desires to publish 
articles on German writers, 
66-67 a strong harmoni- 
ously developed personality, 
68-70, 143, 242, 246; in- 
fluence of Goethe upon her 
religious and philosophical 
thinking, 71 ff., 242; desire 
to grow, 37, 71-72; *'Ger- 
raanico" and not Transcen- 
dental, 72-73 ; reasons for 
wrong classification, 73-74; 
advocate of Goethe-Schiller 
doctrine of harmonious unity 
of character, 82; self-de- 
velopment from within out- 
wards through experience, 
19, 85-89, 143, 146; seeks to 
be active, thoughtful, natural 
woman, 102; the spirit of 
Faust, 87-88 ; unorthodox, 
89-90; man's mission to be 
free and a creator with God, 
90-91; 93-94; Goethe's doc- 
trine of "Spirit-Nature" in 
Credo, 94-98 ; good mission 
of evil, 98-101 ; abandon- 
ment to higher nature, loi ; 
mission of poetry, 102; of 
art, 103, 104; eternal pro- 
gression, 105-106 ; daemon- 



ology, 107 113; though editor 
of Dial does not consider her- 
self or it transcendental, 114- 
115; her relations to "Tran- 
scendental Club", 115; aim 
and character of her "talks", 
117-121, 243-244; sees differ- 
ence between her views and 
Transcendental, 121, 128, 
also 73 ; her criticism of 
Transcendentalism, 122-128 ; 
accepts limitations of man, 
passions to be brought into 
sympathy with higher nature, 
not killed, 126-127; her 
criticism of Fourier and 
Brook Farm scheme and pref- 
erence of Goethe's doctrine, 
129-132; speculative philo- 
sophy not congenial for her, 
132-133; difference between 
her and Emerson's tempera- 
ments and teaching, 134-143; 
Emerson's influence on her, 
134-135; "white light" vs. 
"glow of action", 137-138, 
140-142; her Goethean real- 
ism, divinity of human 
nature, 144, 147 ; natural re- 
ligion, her power to call out 
inner life of others, 145-147; 
a defender of Goethe's works 
and doctrines, 148-149, 154- 
173 ; her fitness to become 
Goethe's critic, 174-176, 240; 
her historical attitude in 
criticisms, 165, 172-173 ; see 
also 5-6, II ; prejudices and 
influences to overcome, 148- 
153; critic and interpreter of 
Goethe's works, 174-216; 
her limitations, 234-239; 



INDEX 



267 



criticism and interpretation 
of Faust, 175-182, 209; of 
Wtlhelm Meister, 1 31-132, 
182-191, 210-214; of 

Werther, 191-195, 198 ; of 
Tasso, 57, 195-198, 220; of 
Egmont, 198; of Gotz von 
Berlichingen, 198; of the 
Elective Ajjiiiities, 58, 198- 
205 ; of Iphigenie, 58, 198, 
205-207, 210; of Entsagung, 
215; of Prometheus, 94, 215, 
237; lyric poetry, 63-64, 102- 
103, 216; characters of 
women from Goethe's works 
as ideals of womanhood, 
207-216; her translations 
from Goethe, 216-239; 
Tasso, 217-220; her theor}^ 
as to content and form in 
translations, 218-220; Ecker- 
mann's Conversations ivith 
Goethe, Sjy 220-223 ; proposed 
Life of Goethe, 67, 223-226; 
Correspondence of Fraiilein 
Giinderode and Bettine von 
Arnim, 227-230; her admira- 
tion of these women, 228- 
229, 230; shorter poems, 230- 
239: Eins und A lies, 231- 
232, 233-234; Dauer im 
Wechsel, 232-233, 234, 235- 
237; Prometheus, 237, 238; 
The Godlike, 167-168, 237; 
The Consolers, 237, 239; 
Eagles and Doves, 237, 239; 
Epilogue to the Tragedy of 
Essex, 237, 239; quality, aim 
and importance of these 
translations, 238-239; in- 
debtedness to Carlyle, 240; 
independence of feeling, 240, 
242; worth of her criticisms. 



173, 240-241 ; extent of her 
influence in furthering the 
study of German in America, 
222, 242-246 ; translates 
Herder and De Wette for 
Dr. W. E. Channing, 243 ; 
her personal influence, 243- 
246 ; a Macaria, Natalia, 
and Euphorion, 246 ; her re- 
ligious Credo of 1842 in 
full, 247-257. 

Fuller, Timothy, father of 
Margaret Fuller, his char- 
acteristics, 20-21, 23, 24; 
scholarship, 21 ; Margaret's 
first and severest teacher, 20- 
25 ; his religious rigorism, 
23, 33-34; characteristics in- 
herited from him by Mar- 
garet Fuller, 22, 23. 

Goddard, Dr. H. C, 55, 72, 

75, 134- . 

Goebel, Julius, 60, 100. 

Goethe, quoted as "the pivotal 
mind in modern literature", 
"apostle of individual cul- 
ture", 2 ; Margaret Fuller's 
great second schoolmaster, 
40 ; she forms acquaintance 
of, 41, 42; the impulse to 
freer, larger life for J. F. 
Clarke and associates, 46, 
61-62, 85; Margaret Fuller's 
inner life transformed by 
study of, 47, 48, 52, 53, 62- 
70; inborn residue of Puri- 
tanism affects her criticism 
of, 54-56; supremacy and 
permanency of Goethe's in- 
fluence on her, 56-59, 67-69; 
character of Goethe's in- 
fluence, 59-60, 62; liberator 
of the ego, 60-62; influence 



268 



INDEX 



upon Margaret Fuller's reli- 
gious and philosophical 
thinking, 71 flf., 242; Goe- 
the-Schiller doctrine of unity 
of character, 79-85 ; char- 
acter-building through ex- 
perience in life, 86-87 > doc- 
trine of man's mission to be 
free and a creator with God, 
90"93 j "Spirit-Nature" doc- 
trine, 94-98 ; evil a power for 
good, 99-101 ; eternal pro- 
gression, 106-107; Margaret 
Fuller's enthusiasm for art 
inspired by Goethe, 103 ; 
daemonology: quotations from 
Goethe, 108, 111-112; Mar- 
garet Fuller an advocate of 
his realism and doctrine of 
character-building "from 
within outwards", 145-147 ; 
Emerson and Goethe, 136,139, 
140, 141, 143, 144, Emerson's 
rigorous attitude towards, 
149-153 ; studies Goethe at 
friendly solicitation of Car- 
lyle, 150-151; Longfellow's 
antagonism towards, 149, 
153 ; religious prejudice of 
public against, 153, 156, 175, 
199-200; Menzel's harsh 
view of, 162, i66, 168; Mar- 
garet Fuller's defense of, 
148-149, 154-173 ; her fitness 
to become his critic, 174-176 ; 
her historical attitude in 
criticism of, 165, 172-173 ; 
Margaret Fuller's interpreta- 
tion of Goethe's works, 174- 
216; of Faust, 176-182, 209; 
of Wilhelm Meister, 131-132, 
182-191, 210-214; of 
Werther, 191-195, 198; of 



Tasso, 57, 195-198, 220; of 
Egmont, 198 ; of Gotz von 
Berliching£L, 198; of The 
Elective Affinities, 58, 198- 
205 ; of Iphigenie, 58, 198, 
205-207, 210; of Entsagung, 
215; of Prometheus, 94, 215, 
237; lyric poetry, 63-64, 102- 
103, 216; characters of 
women from Goethe's works 
as ideals of womanhood, 
207-216; Margaret Fuller's 
translations of Goethe's 
works, 216-239; Tasso, 217- 
220; Eckermann's Conversa- 
tions voith Goethe, 67, 220- 
223 ; her proposed Life of 
Goethe, 67, 223-226 ; shorter 
poems, 230-239: Eins und 
A lies, 231-232, 233-234; 
Dauer im Wechsel, 232-233, 
234, 235-237; Prometheus, 
137, 238; The Godlike, 167- 
168, 237; The Consolers, 237, 
239; Eagles and Doves, 237, 
239 ; Epilogue to the Tragedy 
of Essex, 237, 239; other 
references, 16, 39, 49, 51, 
102, 103, 105, 125, 126, 134, 
227; Die Freuden, 235; 
value of Margaret Fuller's 
criticisms of, 173, 240-241, 
242-243 ; extent of Margaret 
Fuller's influence in intro- 
ducing Goethe to her country- 
men, 222, 244-245. 
Greeley, Horace, estimation of 
Margaret Fuller as a woman, 
6, 18, 102; of her ability to 
enrich our literature, 6 ; of 
the qualities of Emerson's 
part of Margaret Fuller's 
biography, 9. 



INDEX 



269 



Giinderode, Caroline von, Mar- 
garet Fuller's translation of 
Correspondence of Frdulein 
Giinderode and Bettine 'von 
Arnim, 227-230; Margaret 
Fuller's admiration for, 228- 
229, 230. 

Hale, Edward Everett, v, 46, 
61. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 18. 

Hedge, Frederick H., 3, 245, 
an esteemed friend of Mar- 
garet Fuller, 45 ; assists her 
in study of German, 44, 45- 
46 ; writes of intensity of 
Margaret Fuller's study of 
German, 47; of the qualities 
of her criticism of Goethe, 
173. 

Hegel, G. F. W., 78, 172- 

Heine, Heinrich, 50. 

Herder, J. G., 41, 50, 56, 99, 
192, 243. 

Herschel, F. W., 50. 

Higginson, T. W., writes of 
Margaret Fuller as a force 
in American literature, v, 4, 
5-6; of importance of Dial, 
4-5; 8, 17; of character of 
Margaret Fuller's parents, 
22, 25 ; letter quoted, 45 ; 
underestimates influence of 
Goethe on Margaret Fuller, 
53-54; his definition of 
Transcendentalism inade- 
quate, 73-74; pays high com- 
pliment to effectiveness of 
Margaret Fuller's transla- 
tion of Eckermann's Cotwer- 
sations ivith Goethe, 222 ; 
manuscripts of Margaret 
Fuller's letters, papers, poems, 
and complete religious Credo 



of 1842 deposited by hira in 
Boston Public Library, 230- 
233, 247. 

Hildebrand, Rudolph, discus- 
sion of Goethe as a liberator, 
60-61. 

Horace, 28. 

Howe, Julia Ward, description 
of the orthodox churchman, 
32; of Margaret's traits and 
character, 39, 72, 144; char- 
acteristics of Transcendental- 
ism, 99, 121 ; difference in 
"natural tendency", between 
Margaret Fuller and Emer- 
son, 138. 

Irving, Washington, 12, 74. 

Jacobi, F. H., 50, 78, 166. 

Jahn, F. L., 50. 

Jameson, Mrs. Anna, 58. 

Kant, Immanuel, 75, 76, 77, 78, 
79, 80. 

Karl August, Duke of Weimar, 
no, 112, 150. 

Korner, K. T., 42, 49, 230. 

Lessing, G. E., 49, 52. 

Locke, John, 31, 61. 

Longfellow, H. W., his 
prophecy as to future char- 
acter of American literature, 
13, 14; his antagonism to 
Goethe, 153. 

Lov^rell, James Russell, carica- 
tures Margaret Fuller as 
"Miranda" in Fable for 
Critics, 18. 

Luther, Martin, 180. 

Manzoni, 52. 

Menzel, Wolfgang, Margaret 
Fuller defends Goethe 
against his criticisms, 59, 
162-172. 

Merck, J. H., 192. 



270 



INDEX 



Milton, John, 31, 159, i8o. 

Moliere, 28. 

Napoleon, 112. 

Novalis (Hardenberg, F. L. 
von), Margaret Fuller reads 
his works, 42, 52 ; her ad- 
miration for his writings, 49, 

165; 78, 133- 

Park, Dr., Margaret Fuller at- 
tends his school, 29. 

Parker, Theodore, 3, 5, 50. 

Peabody, Elizabeth P., 3, 138. 

Perkins, Mr., Margaret Fuller 
attends his school, 30. 

Petrarca, 52. 

Plato, 78. 

Plutarch, 78. 

Poe, Edgar Allan, 18, 74. 

Prescott, The Misses, 2, 9. 

Puritanism, Margaret Fuller's 
Puritan home and surround- 
ings, 21, 23, 32-33, 153 ; effect 
upon Margaret Fuller, 54, 
56, 135, 149, 242; her dissent 
with, 33-35, 36, 39, 88-89, 
242; difference between P. 
and Goethe-Schiller doctrine 
of the harmonious unity of 
character, 79-80, loo-ioi, 
126, 175, 199; element of P. 
in Transcendentalism, 79, 
175; P. in Emerson, 150, 135, 
136, 143- 

Racine, 31. 

Richter, Jean Paul, Margaret 
Fuller reads, 42, 52; her 
great admiration for, 50, 165. 

Ripley, George, 3. 

Rousseau, 107, 129. 

Russell, Tour in Germany, 31, 
41. 

Sand, George, loi. 

Saxton, John A., article in 



Dial, "Prophecy-Transcen- 
dentalism-Progress", 76. 

Schelling, F. W. J., 78. 

Schiller, Margaret Fuller 
learns of and reads, 41, 42; 
her great admiration for, 51- 
52, 165, 230; Goethe-Schiller 
doctrine of harmonious unity 
of character, 79-85, 126; 
Ueber Naive und Sentim en- 
tale Dichtung, 126; other 
references, i, 159, 194. 

Schlegels, The (A. W. and 
F.), i66. 

Schleiermacher, F. E. D., 78. 

Seneca, 78. 

Shakespeare, 28, 159; Mar- 
garet Fuller not allowed to 
read his works on Sunday, 
33; Margaret Fuller little 
read in, 31. 

Sismondi, 30. 

Spinoza, B., 50. 

Stael, Madame de, 31, 78; 
works aid Margaret Fuller 
in making acquaintance of 
German, 41 ; Margaret 
Fuller's admiration for, 41. 

Tasso, 52, 107, 159, 197. 

Tennemann, History of Philo- 
sophy read by Margaret 
Fuller, 53. 

Thoreau, H. D., 4, 5. 

Ticknor, George, 44, 245. 

Tieck, J. L., 42, 49, 50, 52. 

Transcendental Club, members 
of, 3; character of, 115-116; 
Margaret Fuller's connec- 
tion with, 3, 4, 12; reform 
and deepening of American 
literature by, 12, 15-17. 

Transcendentalism, Emerson's 
and other definitions of, 75- 



INDEX 



271 



79 ; Higginson's definition 
inadequate, 73-74; Margaret 
Fuller not Transcendental, 
but "Germanico", 73 ; Mar- 
garet Fuller wrongly classed 
as Transcendental, 72-73, 
loi, 121, 126, 128, 132, 143, 
144-146, 242; her criticism 
of, 123-128 ; comparison of, 
with Goethe's doctrine of 
character-building, 79-85, 

loi, 126, 129-130, 143, 175; 
rigorism and asceticism of 
Puritanism in, 54, 79, 175; 
Fourier, Brook Farm and, 



128-130, 132; characteristics 
of, 117, 118-119, 121, 123- 
128, 132, 144. 

Uhland, J. L., 50. 

Unitarianism, relation to 
Transcendentalism, 78 ; char- 
acteristics in which Mar- 
garet Fuller differed with, 
i43> 175 'y doctrines of Herder 
and De Wette incorporated 
in, 243. 

Wallenstein, 107. 

Wieland, C. M., 56. 

Zelter, K. F., 108. 



} n -7 



XI •? 



